swear not to be concubine

Chapter 34

When Jian Yan found Xu Miaoning, she was sitting on a rock beside the stream, with her hands wrapped around her knees, her head lowered, her shoulders trembling, and she was crying very sadly.Her maid, Qing Ya, stood aside very anxiously, and tried to persuade her for a long time to no avail, so she just knelt down and begged her.

Seeing Jian Yan approaching, Qing Ya acted as if she had seen a savior, hurried over in a few steps, and said anxiously: "Biao girl, go and persuade my girl, she has been crying for a long time gone."

Jian Yan signaled her not to worry, and then let her, Bai Wei, and Si Yue stay where they were, while she walked towards Xu Miaoning, picked a clean stone beside her and sat down, but He didn't say a word to persuade her, but imitated her example, put his hands on his knees, rested his head on his knees, and looked at the stream in front of him without saying a word.

This Taoyuan was originally close to a large lake.When the grandpa of the Shen family ordered people to transplant a thousand peach trees here, he also had people dig a winding stream to draw water from the lake to surround the peach forest.In this way, of course, the problem of irrigating the thousand peach trees can be successfully solved, and secondly, when the peach blossoms are in full bloom, you can also take a small boat and enjoy the flowers along the winding stream, which is really extremely elegant.

The stream water is also clear, reflecting the blue sky, white clouds, brown branches, and pink peach blossoms.Occasionally, the wind blows, and there are petals floating slowly to the surface of the water from top to bottom.

With the stream as the boundary, the peach blossoms on the water flutter and dance downwards, while the petals in the reflection dance from bottom to top, and when they finally land on the water, the two petals merge into one, drifting along with the stream. floating forward.

Jian Yan couldn't help but chuckled lightly.Because of this situation, it suddenly reminded her of a couplet.So she turned her head and looked at Xu Miaoning who was still crying very sadly, and said with a smile: "I'll make a pair for you, okay? Chihua is paired with Yingluo, what do you want to do in the next couplet?"

Xu Miaoning looked up at her in disbelief, as if she couldn't believe that the person in front of her could be her cousin.

According to common sense, Jian Yan saw her crying at this time, shouldn't she be comforting her?I learned how to sit here like her before, and it’s fine not to say a word, just to be sad with her, but this time I still smiled and made a pair for her, what is that?
Xu Miaoning was surprised, after a moment of silence, she finally couldn't help but said: "Cousin, I'm crying."

"Well, I know," Jian Yan nodded, the faint smile on her face remained unchanged, "I saw it. Now your eyes are swollen like peaches."

Xu Miaoning was silent for a while, and then asked again: "Then why don't you comfort me? Instead, make me right?"

Jian Yan shrugged, spread her hands, and said helplessly: "But I can't comfort people."

Xu Miaoning just wanted to go crazy.Even if you don't know how to comfort people anymore, you don't need to make a pair for me this time, right?

At this time, Jian Yan laughed again and said: "Why, are you not compatible with this pair? Well, how about telling me a tongue twister? No, you dare not?"

Sure enough, Xu Miaoning was so impressed by her aggressive general that she immediately said: "Why don't I dare? Cousin, just say it."

Jian Yan smiled.She decided to take it step by step.

What she said first was that chemical fertilizers would evaporate, Xu Miaoning read it along, and she didn't make any mistakes, and she couldn't help but have a little bit of complacency on her face.So Jian Yan said the second sentence, black fertilizer turns gray, gray fertilizer turns black, although it is a bit difficult, Xu Miaoning also said it with bumps, but there is no big mistake anyway.So Jian Yan's third sentence came right after, the black chemical fertilizer turned gray and would volatilize; the gray chemical fertilizer would turn black when it volatilized, Xu Miaoning's face became dark, and her speech was a little slurred.Jian Yan's fourth sentence followed immediately, the black fertilizer volatilizes and ash will fly away; gray fertilizer volatilizes and turns black and flowers will fly away, by this time Xu Miaoning has forgotten why she was sad just now, and all her energy is only on how to be smooth say these two sentences.When Jian Yan said the fifth sentence, Xu Miaoning finally laughed out loud.Because of the fifth sentence, Jian Yan herself couldn't say it well.

"Haha, cousin," she said happily, "you don't know how to say that either."

Jian Yan also laughed: "I'm not a god, there are many things I don't know."

Xu Miaoning continued to laugh, but suddenly cried again while smiling.

"Cousin," she said, choking with tears, "you are so kind to me."

How could she not know that Jian Yan was using this method to make her happy and comfort her.

Jian Yan took out her handkerchief and came out to wipe away the tears on her face, then held her face, and said with a smile: "Why are you crying? Look, such beautiful eyes are swollen from crying, how irritating it is to look at them." Distressed."

After a pause, she said solemnly again: "Ning'er, for those who don't like you, why should you care what they think of you? Go your own way, let them say what you want, just be true to yourself gone."

Xu Miaoning continued to choke with sobs: "Cousin, my father is paralyzed. Although the people in the house dare not say anything publicly, they are all laughing at me inside, I know it."

This child actually has a sensitive and slender heart, but people inside and outside are usually deceived by her lively appearance.Jian Yan sighed in her heart, thought for a while, and then asked: "Did your father treat you well when he was alive?"

Once, she overheard a maid in Xu's house mentioning that Fifth Master Xu left when Xu Miaoning and Xu Zhongan were five years old, so Xu Miaoning should have remembered it by then.

"Daddy is very good to me," Xu Miaoning replied without thinking, "Although he can't move, he will comfort me gently every time I'm unhappy. He likes to read Buddhist scriptures and often tells me My brother and I told some Buddhist allusions, so that my brother and I should not be attached, and everything should be normal, and we will naturally be happy for the rest of our lives, and there will be no more troubles in our hearts.”

Jian Yan didn't know much about Xu Wuye, at least she had never heard of it from Mrs. Ji, presumably in her heart, she didn't care much about her paralyzed husband.

"You have a great father. He has a mind that lives in nothing. He has a prajna heart. Even though he has read all the darkness in the world, he still loves life. Few people in this world can reach the level of your father. Realm." Jian Yan took a handkerchief and gently wiped away the tears on Xu Miaoning's face, and asked softly, "Are you proud to have such a father?"

"Proud." Xu Miaoning replied loudly.

"Even if he's a paralytic?"

This time Xu Miaoning hesitated.It is estimated that she has been laughed at a lot because of this incident over the years.But soon, she replied with a louder voice than before: "Proud."

Jian Yan smiled and said, "Then why are you sad?"

Xu Miaoning's face was slightly startled, but she quickly realized it.

"Cousin," she pulled Jian Yan's right hand, and thanked her sincerely, "Thank you."

"What's there to thank?" Jian Yan smiled and stretched out her left hand to pat her on the head, "I'm your cousin."

Because you are kind to me, Jian Yan thought silently in her heart, after coming to this Xu family, only you are sincerely kind to me, so naturally I can't see you sad.

Xu Miaoning is a person whose sadness comes and goes quickly.Once the heart knot of many years is untied, I will stop crying immediately.She picked up a nearby branch and started playing with water.

There are many peach blossoms planted on both sides of the stream, and there are also many hibiscus near the water, but the hibiscus has not yet bloomed, and only the green leaves are in the shade.

After a gust of wind, many petals fluttered down from the Linshui peach tree, moving forward with the gurgling water.

Xu Miaoning slapped the water surface with a branch, splashed a burst of water, and brought up a few petals.She turned her head to look at the few petals that fell again, and then said with some annoyance: "I can't tell you about the upper couplet of the pond flower that you just released to Yingluo."

"It's fine if you don't come out." Jian Yan sat there watching her happily playing in the water, and felt a little itchy in her heart, "I can't come out either."

Xu Miaoning turned her head to look at her with an expression of disbelief: "Cousin, I thought you knew everything."

Jian Yan laughed: "How can I be so good? In fact, I don't know too many things."

However, after more than 20 years in a modern society with a huge information explosion, there are naturally some things that you know more than you do.Even this line of Shanglian was not actually thought up by her, it was just touched by the scene, and she remembered that she had seen this line before.

Xu Miaoning didn't dwell too much on this pair, but started chatting with Jian Yan about other things.Chatting and chatting, we came to Taoyuan.

"The current owner of this Taoyuan is really good." Just now, Xu Miaoning also heard Mrs. Jian chatting with Mrs. Wu, and knew something about this Taoyuan, so she also sighed with them, "Such a big and beautiful Taoyuan You don’t need money to come in. I heard that it used to cost a lot of money to enter this Taoyuan.”

Jian Yan couldn't help but sneered: "What's so good? It's good that the current owner of this Taoyuan is a smart person, but it's not good."

Xu Miaoning was naturally dissatisfied, so she said: "What's wrong with him? He even makes people come into this peach orchard to enjoy the peach blossoms for free, without asking for any money."

Jian Yan bent down and stretched out her hand to stir the stream, picked up a peach blossom petal that had just floated to her hand, and played with it between her two fingers.

"This is his brilliance. Not only did he earn more money than before, but he also gained a good reputation." Jian Yan said lightly, "This Taoyuan is located in a remote place. You need to pay money to enjoy the flowers. Although the scenery is beautiful when the flowers are in bloom, there are no peach blossoms anywhere. Why do people have to travel such a long way and spend money to come here to enjoy the flowers? But no money is accepted now. , people have the psychology of taking advantage, and speaking of it, Taoyuan is famous after all, so even if the location is a little remote, just for the two words of free, some people will come here to enjoy the flowers. It’s just that they ran so There are many roads here, it is inevitable to be thirsty and hungry, and when viewing flowers under the trees, some literati think, how can there be flowers without wine? It’s just that the rules of entering this garden have been released. Let those who bring drinks and food into the garden, what can we do? You can buy it from the servants in the garden, and if you have more money, you can also rent a private room, sit on the high terrace and enjoy the flowers while drinking. Elegant. Although I don't know the price of drinks and food here, the teacup we used to drink tea just now turned out to be from Ru Kiln, and the utensils for eating and drinking. Which one is not exquisite? Presumably this is the same drink Food will be several times more expensive than outside. But even if drinks and food are more expensive than outside, what can I do? I am hungry, thirsty, and interested, so I have to pay for it. There are those who invite three or five friends to come together, but if there is a family in the middle who is a little bit better, they are coaxed and coaxed together, and they don’t care about the price of drinks and food? The money spent is not only the first The money you need to pay to enter the garden? I don’t know how much more than that.”

Xu Miaoning said that she couldn't keep up with Jian Yan's train of thought, she was dizzy, she just looked at her with round eyes and didn't say a word.

Seeing her like this, Jian Yan couldn't help laughing.

She reached out and patted the peach blossom between her two fingers on the back of her hand, and then concluded: "Hey, this is a bit like boiling a frog in warm water. When the water in the pot is scalding people, which frog will Jump into it? But what if it is cold water, and there are mosquitoes in it as a temptation? The frog sees that there is an advantage to take advantage of, and there is no danger, so he can't wait to jump in. In fact, this is a trap. Wait until it jumps into the pot Inside, you start the fire under the pot. In the end, the water temperature is not only the scalding temperature at the beginning, but also much higher than that. But the frog didn’t notice it in the pot, and walked into other people’s water step by step. Set up a cover for it until the water boils, and the frog is cooked."

Xu Miaoning frowned with a pair of slender crescent eyebrows, bit her lower lip lightly and didn't speak for a long time, presumably she was thinking about what Jian Yan said about boiling frogs in warm water.

Jian Yan didn't bother her, instead she took the branch she was holding, and went to play in the water by herself.

It's rare to come out to let the wind go, she said with emotion, the days of staying in a courtyard all day can drive people crazy.

Just playing, playing, she stopped slapping the water with the branches, just kept staring at the water surface, and her complexion gradually became serious.

There seems to be a person sitting among the hibiscus bushes on the other side of the water.It's just that her focus had been on Xu Miaoning before, the hibiscus bushes were dense enough, and the clothes on that person were also green, the same color as the hibiscus leaves, so she never noticed it.But now through the water, he can clearly see the reflection of that person, and judging by his figure, it should still be a man.

Jian Yan immediately turned around and pulled Xu Miaoning to leave.

No matter who it is, women in the boudoir of this era value their reputations, so it is better to have less contact with strange men.

Xu Miaoning didn't know what happened, but she was still talking to Jian Yan: "Cousin, I think it's a pity that this frog was boiled alive in the end. It's just that it felt hot in the water, why didn't it jump out immediately What? That way it won’t be cooked.”

Jian Yan is not in the mood to answer her question right now, she just pulls her away.

At this time, I heard a low and gorgeous voice with a smile: "Because the water temperature is gradually rising. When the frog senses that something is wrong, even if it wants to jump out, it will be too late." It's too late, I can only watch myself being cooked."

(End of this chapter)