sea

Chapter 46
The coir raincoat man stopped the boat suddenly, and said in a respectful voice, "Master Lu, please go ashore." Lu Jian saw a row of stone steps beside the boat, and immediately stepped up the steps.Suddenly his eyes lit up, and a magnificent mansion appeared in front of him, with brilliant lights and noisy voices, just as he was surprised, a man emerged from the darkness beside him, and whispered, "Master Lu?"

Lu Jian was not used to this address, so he nodded blankly.The man said: "Follow me." After speaking, Lu Jian quickly followed him around the wall and came to a side door.The man knocked on the door, and a middle-aged woman came out from the door. She was dressed gorgeously and wore light powder. Although she was a middle-aged lady, she still had a charming charm. She laughed first, and asked crisply, "Master Lu?" With a simple move, "come with my concubine."

Lu Jian was confused, and felt that everything about tonight was weird, so he couldn't help but ask, "Auntie, how do you know my last name?"

The woman looked back and smiled, the water in her eyes was flowing, and her words were full of affection. Lu Jian felt that those eyes were seductive, his heart was shocked, he hurriedly lowered his head, and suddenly heard the woman giggling: "I shouldn't have come to pick you up, It's just that I want to see what it looks like to be appreciated by Master Gu." Lu Jianqi said, "Are you also from Gu Zhen?"

The woman covered her mouth with a smile and said: "You are a real person, what do you mean you are also a Gu Zhen person? I have a hundred people who want to be him, but it's a pity that the little bastard has high corners of his eyes and doesn't like my old lady."

When Lu Jian saw her bewitching and seductive manner, he couldn't help but blush, and thought: "Why does she call herself a concubine at one time, and her mother at another time, Master Gu at one time, and little bastard at another time? The city is somewhat similar." Thinking of this, he became suspicious and asked, "Where is this going?"

The woman smiled without answering, and walked forward. Although Lu Jian was suspicious, he couldn't resist curiosity.The two went up a long corridor with tall red lights on both sides and gilded bird racks in between.Fang was about to turn a corner, when a woman hurriedly ran in front of her, she just lowered her head and walked quickly, bumped into the woman, the tray in her hand was tilted, and a porcelain cup broke with a "dang".

The woman said angrily, "little hoof, are you blind?"Lu Jian frowned, stretched out his hand to stop him and said, "It's just a porcelain cup, so it's worth hitting someone?" In a blink of an eye, the woman who threw the cup raised her head.Seeing this, Lu Jian couldn't help feeling horrified.Not for anything else, just because the girl was too ugly, her complexion was yellow and swollen, the corners of her mouth were split, her left eyebrow was missing, and it was skewed into a thin slit; although the eyebrows and eyes were there on her right cheek, a huge abscess was formed, and His back is bent, his knees are bent, and he seems to be suffering from cartilage disease. In short, whoever takes a look at him will never want to take a second look.

The woman and Lu Jian met each other, and a gleam of light flashed in her right eye.Lu Jian felt that this expression seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.Just waiting to take a closer look, the woman's eyes darkened, and her eyelids drooped again.

"Okay." The woman stared at the broken porcelain on the ground, and suddenly shouted, "It's you again, ugly slave. Do you know that this cup is the top grade of the official kiln, and the price of one is ten times that of yours?" Sell ​​yourself for money!"

The ugly slave stared at her toes, and said in a low voice: "Mother He, I'm sorry." The voice was like sawing wood with a rope, hoarse and ugly, one couldn't believe it came from a woman.

The woman showed disgust on her face, and spat: "If you hadn't had such an ugly appearance, which is heavenly and earthly, I wouldn't be bothered to keep you. Not only would I be disappointed, but I would also be ruined."

Lu Jian saw the ugly slave with his head down, his shoulders trembling, as if he was crying, and he felt pity in his heart, and said angrily, "Auntie's words are too harsh, looks are born, who wants to be ugly?"

Mother He snorted, waved her hand and said, "Go, it's your luck to meet Lord Lu today. Otherwise, I'll kill you ugly bastard."

The ugly slave flew away as if he had been pardoned.Mother He laughed and said, "Little Hoof is such a disappointment. I kept her to deal with those troublesome guests, but I accidentally offended Mr. Lu." Lu Jian asked strangely, "How to deal with troublesome guests?"

Mother He smiled, and answered the wrong question: "The people over there are waiting in a hurry." They walked away, the two twisted and turned several times, and suddenly heard the laughter of men and women. The room is covered by a screen.Because it was midsummer, a "Snow Scenery Picture" by Li Cheng of the Song Dynasty was copied on the screen. The air of ice and snow in the painting rushed to the face, which greatly reduced the current heat.

Suddenly, a woman behind the screen said with a charming smile: "My good brother, if you lose this game of chess, what benefit will you give me?" Me?" Hearing this voice, Lu Jian was taken aback, the man who spoke was Gu Zhen.

Suddenly another woman yelled, and said crisply: "Sister Hanyu, the little bastard is trying to mess around again, this time you must not be soft-hearted and spare him, you must punish him to bark like a dog three times." At the end of the day, another woman laughed and said, "Qiuhen, you are soft-hearted. It's not that you don't know his virtues. What kind of bastard is this little bastard afraid to do? Don't talk about barking like a dog, even if you are in the street in Nanjing Learning how to crawl like a dog, I'm afraid it won't bother him. I'll come up with a question, if I lose this game, I'll punish him with my body and sleep in Hanyu's room tonight."

Hanyu spat: "Didn't you hurt me, Wanniang? The tigress in his family is very fierce. Don't look at him usually majestic, but you are afraid in your heart. Last time he drank a few cups of yellow soup and didn't know what was going on." Salivating for me to accompany him, they all entered the room and lay on the bed, but when I came back after washing up, where was his shadow? I didn’t know he ran hundreds of miles away.”

"Is there such a thing?" Gu Zhen seemed surprised, "Why don't I remember?"

"Pretend to be dumb with me again?" Han Yu sneered, "But this time I have a witness, Sister Suqin, you also heard and saw it with your own eyes that night, didn't you?" Only one woman hummed, Said: "I don't remember either." Hanyu said anxiously: "Sister, why are you protecting him?" Qiu Hen said with a smile: "Sister Suqin doesn't protect him, who protects him? No wonder, the two of them As soon as we met, we were locked in the room and couldn't come out, and we talked about poetry and poetry for a whole day."

All the girls giggled when they heard it, and Wanniang gasped and said, "Qiuhen, you narrow-minded ghost, Suqin's poems are excellent, but what kind of poems does this little bastard know? Suqin , you don't understand it, but it's amazing, you listen to Qiu Hen's tone, you are very jealous."

Suqin said lightly: "I am a friend of a gentleman with him, don't make random guesses with a villain's heart." Qiu Hen sneered and said: "Okay, you are a gentleman among women, and we are all slutty villains, how can you sing?" Poetry and piano, we can only sing pornographic songs."

Seeing the discord among the girls, Gu Zhen coughed and was about to persuade her, but Mother He couldn't help but said, "Master Gu, Master Lu is here." Gu Zhen snorted and said with a smile, "Come in, please."

Lu Jianwei hesitated, turned around the screen, and suddenly saw Gu Zhen wearing a green gauze square hat and a green cloth robe, with a more handsome look than before.He was sitting in front of the red sandalwood table, and he was playing Shuanglu with a beautiful woman.The woman was greedy for the cold, she took off her silk stockings, her gauze was half closed, revealing her two snowy arms, and there were three beauties sitting around them, two of them were dressed similarly to the woman playing games, one was leaning on the bed and eating melon seeds, The other sits cross-legged, with bare shoulders, white and bright, only one woman is well-dressed and sitting in a dignified posture, probably that Suqin.

Gu Zhen pushed the balance with a smile and said, "Four, this Lu Jian is my friend." The four women looked at Lu Jian intently, all curious.

Lu Jianhe had seen such a battle before, his face was flushed, neither advancing nor retreating, the woman who played the game, Hanyu, smiled and said: "Gu Zhen, I have known you for four or five years, and I have never heard you call anyone Friend." Wanniang also laughed and said, "Yes, I guess it's our Lord Gu, who is not good at women, but good at men..." Before the word "Feng" came out, Na Suqin suddenly said: "Wanniang, this Mr. Lu You are an upright person, don't talk nonsense."

Wanniang threw away the melon seeds in her hand, snorted lightly, clapped her hands and said, "Forget it, I have friends here, and Shuanglu won't fight anymore, and I don't expect to care about us. How are you? I'm leaving now. Wen Daguan is still waiting for me." Twisting her waist, she slid away, and all the girls were smiling and angry, and all of them dispersed in an instant.

Gu Zhen waited for all the girls to leave before he smiled and motioned for Lu Jian to sit down.The two of them were silent for a long time, before Gu Zhen said: "I only think of Guanhailou as a farewell, and it will be a forever farewell. I didn't expect that you and I will meet again."

Lu Jian also felt emotional and sighed. He had countless questions in his heart, but he didn't want to ask. He was afraid that this question would break the friendship between the two of them. He endured for a long time before he said, "What place is this?"

Gu Zhen smiled, and said lightly: "This is Cuiyun Tower, the largest brothel on the Qinhuai River." Lu Jian said in shock, "You do this kind of business?"

Gu Zhen laughed dumbfounded, waved his hand and said: "You will be mistaken, I do everything in this world's business, except for two things, one is gambling and the other is whoring. I stay here only to escape from the enemy. A mother and girl, she was favored by me in the early years, and she has a very close friendship, so the so-called big hermit lives in the city, and this place is far safer than other places."

Lu Jian looked at him and didn't know what to say. This person seemed right but not right, evil but not evil, always unpredictable.After a long silence, he suddenly said, "Gu Zhen, I beg you for one thing."

Gu Zhen smiled and said: "You also have something to ask me? It's really strange." Lu Jian told about Qi Jiguang's imprisonment, hesitantly said: "Win Wancheng said that saving elder brother requires money, can you lend me 5000 taels?" Silver? I can go and unclog the joints. As for the silver, I will definitely try to return it to you in the future.”

"5000 taels of silver is nothing." Gu Zhen pondered for a moment, "However, bribery to save people would have been a success two years ago, but I'm afraid it won't work now." Lu Jian said in surprise, "Why?"

Gu Zhen said: "In the middle of last year, the Ming army in the south of the Yangtze River changed the governor. The current governor is Hu Zongxian, and he is very powerful. Among the four bandits, Chen Dong and Ma Ye died in his hands one after another. The remaining Wang Zhi and Xu Hai's situation is also very bad. With such a shrewd person, how can he be bought by mere gold and silver?"

Lu Jian was discouraged and said, "So, elder brother is really hopeless?" Gu Zhen smiled slightly and said, "That's not necessarily the case! It depends on whether Governor Hu is Zhuge Liang or Duke Mu of Qin." Lu Jianqi said: "This What does it have to do with Zhuge Liang and Duke Mu of Qin?"

"It's a big deal!" Gu Zhen smiled, "It's the same as the whole army was wiped out. Ma Su defeated Jieting and was beheaded by Zhuge Liang. As a result, among the Three Kingdoms, the Shu Kingdom fell first; and Meng Mingshi was defeated by Xiaoshan. Not only was the entire army annihilated, but he was also captured by the state of Jin. As a result, Qin Mugong not only did not kill him, but reused him. Therefore, he was able to defeat the state of Jin first, and then conquer Xirong, creating the hegemony of Qin State VI. If Governor Hu is Zhuge Liang , General Qi’s life is over, if he is Qin Mugong, it will be just the opposite.”

Seeing that Lu Jian was frowning, he couldn't help but smiled and said, "Let's take a gamble. I bet that Hu Zongxian is Qin Mugong." Zhuge Liang, didn’t you curse the elder brother to die?” Looking at Gu Zhen in a blink of an eye, he hesitated to speak, but Gu Zhen didn’t realize it, and said with a smile: “I see you are hungry and tired, you might as well eat something first and sleep , what's the matter, ask me after you wake up."

As soon as he clapped his hands, someone brought him a late meal, so Lu Jian ate indiscriminately, lying silently on the bed, smelling the incense in the room, feeling tired, and fell asleep in a daze.During this period, he woke up in a daze once, and vaguely saw Gu Zhen leaning over the table and writing quickly, with a tall stack of account books piled up beside the table.When I woke up for the second time, the stack of account books was missing.Gu Zhen paced up and down with his hands behind his back, seemingly troubled, seeing Lu Jian got up, he turned sorrow into a smile: "Woke up so soon?" He handed him a white satin cloak, "Come on, let's go for a stroll by the river .”

(End of this chapter)