The dust settles

Chapter 38

I am back, but there is a faint pain in my heart.This time, my wife betrayed me, and my brother, who was also my opponent, died.The old chieftain sat firmly on the high position, and the more he lived, the more interesting he was.I pinned my hopes on Mrs. Tusi, she always wanted me to inherit the position of Tusi, but after my brother died, her attitude became ambiguous.She said my father would never look for a new woman again, so it would be better for everyone that her son should not worry.But I don't see any benefit.On the day of leaving, she told me again that she was not opposed to my being a Maiqi toast, but was afraid that my wife would become the wife of a Maiqi toast, because she still had a few years to live, and she was used to being a toast wife.

The butler called me.

"Just say what you have to say."

He just took out a letter from his bosom, it was from Tana's mother, the female chieftain Rong Gong, I can't read, the housekeeper said, the meaning of the female chieftain's letter is to tell the daughter and son-in-law not to rush back to see her.After the housekeeper told me all this, he said, "Master, you don't have to be sad."

I said, "I will be sad when they die." After I finished speaking, I took the letter from Chieftain Ronggong and walked into the tent.I thought to myself, now, I have to live on the border.I looked at the moon in the sky and thought of my uncle who had gone far away.I miss him so much today.Like he is my only relative.The butler said behind me, "I'm going back to sleep."

I heard myself say, "Hmm."

The butler walked away with the moonlight in his chest.I opened the tent door, and a beam of moonlight slipped in and fell on Tana.she laughed.She just woke up from a dream, and her smile was very bright and moving.I lowered the door curtain, and her smiling face was lost in the darkness again.But her laughter still echoed in the darkness: "Going out to find a girl?"

I shook my head, the letter rustling in my hand.

"You want to talk, idiot, I know you are shaking your head, but you don't know that shaking your head in the dark can't be seen?"

I opened the tent curtain again to let the moonlight shine in, and this time, she not only knew, but could see too.In this moonlit night, Tana smiled: "You are a very interesting person."

I shook the letter paper in my hand again.Tana is literate."Light the lamp," she said.

Under the light, she said: "It's from my mother." I lay down under the quilt, and she stopped talking after reading the letter.I said, "She doesn't want us to go to her either."

"She told us not to miss her," Tana said.

I said, "If someone misses the chieftain, it's the chieftain's seat."

Tana said: "My mother said that I am already a member of the Maiqi family, and told us not to worry about the affairs of the Ronggong family." The chieftain of Ronggong said in the letter that so many things happened in the Maiqi family. Don't worry, you should take care of the old chieftain who has suffered the pain of losing his son. Although the son-in-law is a fool, he is also an extraordinary fool, a fool who occasionally does smart things.She said, "I heard that you are going to the north again. What are you doing on the border instead of staying in Tusi's village?" Finally, my mother-in-law said, "Don't worry about me too much. The famine is over now."

Tana thought she would always be the apple of her mother's eye, the charming daughter of chieftain Ronggong. She said to the letter paper with tears in her eyes, "Mother, you don't want a daughter anymore."

The letter rustled in her hand, and she tried to read the letter again, but the oil in the lamp burned out.There was a strong smell of animal fat in the darkness.Tana leaned into my arms and said, "Fool, where are you taking me?"

"Our own place."

"Will you wrong the most beautiful lady in the world?"

"You'll be Mrs. Toast."

"You won't hurt me, will you? I am the most beautiful girl in the world, have you heard my song?"

Of course I have.And, that song is ringing in my ears right now.We did things we hadn't done in a long time.When it was over, her fingers were still running on my chest, and I asked her if she was drafting a reply letter to Chieftain Ronggong.She dropped a tear on my chest.The tears were a little hot, and I couldn't help shaking.She said, "Sleeping with your brother hurts you, doesn't it?"

this woman!I didn't expect her to ask such a question.Even a fool like me wouldn't ask people such a question to wake up the pain in others' hearts.At that time, I wanted to kill my brother.Later, the killer and a purple dress joined forces to kill the elder brother, making this suave guy exude so much stench.Thinking of this, it's like I killed my brother with my hands.But that's just the feeling in the heart, the guilt is just in the heart.I heard my own voice very cold: "Fortunately, you don't have his disgusting stench on you."

"My body is fragrant. If you smell it, there will be fragrance without spices."

I smell it.

She added: "You idiot, don't let other men tempt me anymore." A stunning woman always has a man who makes up her mind, I know that.If they come to rob, I will do my best to protect them.But she was willing to go to someone else's bed, so no one could do anything about it.She probably guessed what I was thinking at this time, and while drawing on my chest with her fingers, she said casually: "Okay, don't be angry, when you get to the border, ask the housekeeper to find you a girl. We are already tied Together, inseparable."

It hurts me that she didn't realize it until now.

I kept thinking about her words as I went back on the road.The housekeeper said that it was not bad for a beautiful woman like her to think so.I think so too.Once I figured everything out, I walked much more briskly.

I'm back on the border again!

I'm going to give the clerk a proper room.I said to him, "It should be close to me, quiet, suitable for contemplation, fresh air, and bright light, is that right?" He nodded vigorously, his face glowing red.I daresay he hadn't been this excited since the first time his tongue was cut out.He was less convinced that the border was not a fort, but an open building.He even didn't believe that there would be a huge market here that gathered the wealth of the world.As a recorder of history, in the official village, he recorded that chieftain Maiqi announced his abdication but did not abdicate. It is a repetition of past history.Now, he saw something new and unprecedented in the border, and his eyes were shining brightly.He would write it all down in detail.I personally took him around the noisy market.I took him into the enemy's tavern, a place I was familiar with.The shopkeeper looked at me and smiled, as if I hadn't been away for two years and was drunk in the shop yesterday.I asked the shopkeeper, is his brother back?He looked at the clerk.I say this man has no tongue.He said that people who do that kind of thing always have to hide-hide, or they don't look like killers, and every line of work has rules for every line of work.

The street is such a good thing, sitting in the shop and watching so many people riding horses, or walking, coming and going before my eyes, the air is full of dust, although I have to cover the glass with my hand to block the dust, the wine tastes better But exceptionally smooth.I was talking to the shopkeeper when two boys came in and said the housekeeper was looking for me.I ordered a bowl of wine for each of the two boys, and told them to drink slowly.

40. Far off
Walking out of the street to the north is the river, and the butler has built a beautiful wooden bridge over the river.The other end of the bridge is facing my open courtyard.The steward waited at the end of the bridge and said, "Guess who's having dinner with us."

I can't figure it out.The butler smiled and led us to the dining room.Sangye Drolma greeted us at the door, dressed in bright clothes.I said, "Well, I didn't become chieftain, but you got promoted instead."

As soon as she lifted her dress, she was about to kneel to me, so I supported her.I said, "The housekeeper asked me to guess who's coming to have dinner with us."

She smiled, and said into my ear: "Master, don't pay attention to him, you are not a fool if you can't guess it, and you are not a smart person if you guess it."

Oh my god, it's an old friend of the Maiqi family, Commissioner Huang Chumin standing in front of me!

He still had such a thin face, with a pitiful scorched beard floating on it, but the change was that the pair of small eyes were much more stable than before.I said to this distant traveler, "Your eyes are not as tired as they used to be."

His answer was straightforward: "Because I don't think about anything for others."

I asked him how the captain Jiang was doing.He told me that Captain Jiang traveled far away to fight against the red Han people and drowned in a river.

"He doesn't stink?"

Huang Chumin's eyes widened. He didn't understand why I asked such a question.Maybe he finally realized that he was talking to a fool, so he laughed and said, "On the battlefield, it's hot and it always stinks. When a man dies, he's just a body of flesh, no different from a dog or a cow."

Only then did everyone sit down as guest and host.

I sat on the front and clapped my hands, Zhuoma clapped her hands outside the door again, and the maids filed in.

In front of each of us, there is a rectangular vermilion wooden plate, on which are painted with gold powder strangely shaped fruits and huge flowers that are said to be from places in India.On the wooden plate are Handi porcelain and silverware made by ourselves.The wine glass is a blood-red mardou from Ceylon.After three glasses of wine, I asked Huang Chumin what he brought this time.Years ago he had brought modern guns and opium to the Maggie family.Throughout history, when the Han people came to our place, they took what they didn't bring with them.

Huang Chumin said: "I brought myself with me, I came here to join the young master." He said frankly that he couldn't stay in the original place any longer.I asked him if he was a red Han Chinese.He shook his head, and then went on to say, "It's probably a relative of the red Han people."

I said, "Han people all look the same, I can't tell which ones are red and which ones are white."

Huang Chumin said: "That is the business of the Han people themselves."

I said, "There will be a house for you here."

He patted himself on the head, his small eyes glowed, and said, "Maybe there is something in it that the young master will be useful to you."

I said, "I don't like talking through a middleman."

He said: "I will start learning your language today. At most half a year, we can speak without translation."

"What about the girl, I don't plan to give you a girl."

"I'm old."

"You are not allowed to write poetry."

"I don't have to put on a show."

"I just don't like the way you used to be. I want to give you 100 taels of silver every month."

This time it was time for him to show himself, he said: "I don't want your money, I'm old, but I can find my own money."

In this way, Huang Chumin stayed with me.I didn't ask him why he didn't go to Maiqi Tusi, but came to me.I think this is a more difficult question to answer.I didn't want to ask someone to answer a question that wasn't easy to answer, so I didn't ask him.One day, I went to the enemy's shop and was drinking. The owner suddenly told me that his brother came back last night.I asked where the killer was.The shopkeeper looked at me, studying the expression on my face.And I know that his brother is in this room, and if I lift the curtain leading to the back room, I will definitely see him sitting under the small window facing a bowl of wine.I said: "It's better to leave, otherwise, the rules are there, and I won't violate them."

He said: "My brother let you go once, and you let him go too."

He was trying to trick me into obeying different rules.When a person comes to this world, he will find that he has prepared a lot of rules.Sometimes these rules are bonds, sometimes they are weapons, like the rules of revenge.Chieftain Maiqi used their father and killed their father. Their revenge is justified and stipulated by the rules.The owner's brother didn't kill me by the river, because I'm not a Mai Qi toast.Killing me violates the rules of revenge, and he will be ridiculed by the world.

I said: "He didn't kill me, he shouldn't kill me. Now, I want to kill him, because he killed my brother. If I see him and don't kill him, the world will laugh at me."

The owner reminded that I should thank his brother for giving me the opportunity to be a toast in the future.

I reminded him that they didn't kill me to make me a toast.I said, "I don't know about you. Your brother is a cowardly killer. I don't want to see him."

The window of the back room rang, and then, a series of horseshoes sounded into the sky.The shopkeeper said, "He's gone. I've built a den here, and we'll have a den after doing what we have to do. You made him homeless, young master."

I smiled: "This is in line with the rules."

The owner said: "I, like everyone else, thought you were a non-conformist. We were wrong."

The two of us sat at a table, on which diners with knives carved a lot of messy things: mysterious symbols and spells, hands, birds, human heads on silver dollars, and even a lip-like thing.I said it was the vulva, but the owner must have said it was a wound.He was actually saying that I had hurt him.The third time he said it was a wound, my fist landed on his face.He got up from the ground, his face was covered with dust, and flames burst out of his eyes.

At this time, Huang Chumin came in, sat down proudly, then called people to serve wine, and said that he would hand over the bodyguards he had brought to me and incorporate them into the team.

"I don't want anything from you."

"Do I still have to worry about my own safety here?"

Look, Huang Chumin is a real smart guy.He has come to the point where he is now, and he has completely placed his fate in my hands.He is a sensible person, knowing that if someone really wants to attack him, a few bodyguards will not help.He handed over the bodyguard, so he didn't have to worry about himself.It was me who should worry about him.His only loss is that wherever he goes, he is not as imposing as having bodyguards.But as long as you don't have to look behind you all the time, and you don't have to sleep with one ear pricked up, that loss is nothing.He drank from a bowl of wine and grinned, a few drops of which smeared on his scorched yellow beard.I told him to come to this hotel whenever he wanted to drink.He asked me if I lost my freedom because of this, and even had to drink in a fixed place.I told him he didn't have to pay for drinks in this store.He asked if I had exempted the shopkeeper from tax.The owner said, "No, I'll make a note, and the young master will pay the bill."

Huang Chumin asked: "Are you his friend? The young master has some strange friends."

"I don't know either, I think because my brother is a killer," said the owner.

Huang Chumin immediately choked on the wine, and that yellow face also changed color.

When I led him out of the store, he staggered as if drunk.I told him that this killer is the kind who specializes in family revenge, and he was relieved.I do feel that the wine is a bit high. On the bridge, some river wind blows, and the wine is even more strong.Huang Chumin told me to hold his shoulders.He asked me, "Is his brother really a killer?"

I said, "I know that, I just don't know what you do?"

He thought for a while and said, "I don't know what I do when I've come to this point, so let me be your master." He used two Chinese characters: Shiye.There's a swarm of bees humming in my fool's head, asking him, "Then who am I?"

He thought for a while, then shouted loudly into my ear: "Now you are nobody, but you can be anything you want to be!"

Yes, if you are a chieftain's son, but not the chieftain's heir, you are nothing.After my brother died, my father did not express that I should be the heir.My mother-in-law wrote again, asking me not to visit her.She said that chieftain Maiqi had suffered such a sad thing, and she could not snatch chieftain Maiqi's last son as her heir.But the butler hinted to me that one day, I could be two toasts at the same time.Master Huang told me the meaning very clearly.

Of course, they all told me that it all had to be patient.

Well, I said, let's just wait, I'm in no hurry.

In this way, spring flowers and autumn moons, day by day passed.The butler and the teacher manage the business and the market, and the two servants and Sangji Drolma do some chores.After a few years like this, the foolish young master of Mai Qi's family is already the richest person in this land.The butler held the ledger and told me the news.

"Even better than my father?" I asked.

"It's more than that," he said. "The young master knows that opium has long been worthless. But the business in our market seems to have just begun."

On this day, I took Tana out on a horse ride. On the way, I told her the news.I think it's good that she didn't go to another man when she got back on the border.She asked, "Are you really the richest man in the toast?"

I say yes."

She said, "I don't believe it, look what's behind you."

I looked, and those closest to me followed.Tana said to the sky: "God, look at what kind of people you have handed over this world." I know, she said that with joy.

Yes, let’s see, my butler is lame, my master is an old man with a brown beard, and the two servants may be because I’ve been with me for too long. The big and small faces have only one expression on everything. , the expression on Eryi's face was shy, and that of Solan Zelang was fierce.Solan Zelang is already the leader of the servants who collect taxes, and he likes the clothes specially made for the servants who collect taxes very much.Dolma is now the foreman of all the maids and cooks. She has gained weight. For women of this age, men are not very important anymore. Therefore, she has begun to forget the silversmith, and she seems to have forgotten the time when I was a maid. up.

Tana asked me: "Why didn't Sangye Dolma conceive a child? I followed you, I met the silversmith, and I followed the housekeeper."

She asked a question that I couldn't answer.So, I asked her with her questions, asking why she didn't have a baby for me.

Tana's response was that she didn't know if it was worth having a baby for me, and she said, "What if you're such an idiot, tell me to have an idiot too?"

My beautiful wife has not yet decided that her husband is a fool, I think.

I said to her, "I'm a fool, your stomach will be empty forever."

Tana said, "When I think you're such a fool, I'm going to find someone else to get me pregnant with."

(End of this chapter)