Alternative Telling of Dream of Red Mansions: Cherishing Spring

Chapter 22
Ruhua stood at the door and watched Xichun walk into the jungle-like night.She saw that the black clothes on her body were blown close to her body by the wind, making her look thinner and thinner like paper.Ruhua's heart was slightly affected, and he raised his hand and shouted: "Girl, wait..."

"Okay." Xichun didn't ask any more questions, just stood upright and waited for her.Ruhua turned around and ran in, asked the coachman for the cloak, took it and ran out.Lai Yi'er was at the stable pointing out the boy to harness the horses, and when they saw her coming, both of them were taken aback.Ruhua's face changed, because he was holding something in his hand, it was not easy to give it to others, he froze for a moment, and asked: "It's so late, what are you doing with the horse?" Boy: "I haven't put it away here, where are the eyes?"

Ru Hua was taken aback, then turned around and went out with the cloak.

"Girl, you keep this one. Master Feng rewarded it for your sake. After all these years, it's too old. I know you too, and I definitely don't want new ones!" Ru Hua said, also No matter whether Xichun agrees or not, she puts the cloak in her hand and runs away.

"Why are you still in such a hurry?" Seeing her back, Xichun shook her head and chuckled.The cloak in my hand has been used for too long, the outside is worn out, and the fur on the inside has almost fallen out, so it is very light in my hand.She stroked her fingers back and forth, and suddenly she raised her eyebrows and smiled like a girl, "I thought I was old... I can't think of it, you are also aging like this."

……

"If you want, let's go together." She sighed, put on the cloak, embraced and got close to each other like long-lost lovers and friends, she gradually disappeared at the other end of the long alley with a little warmth, her footsteps were silent , finally silent.

The long alley in front of the Zhang family’s mansion was silent again, and the ram horn lanterns hanging on the Zhang mansion’s gate flickered half-brightly, falling into a half-awake sleep, waiting for the next person who broke the dream.This person soon appeared, and it was Zhang Yuanyi, the owner of the Zhang Mansion.The corner door rattled open, the servant led the horse out, and Lai Yi'er stepped on the horse's back.The servant who accompanied him wanted to tell the porter something, but Lai Yi'er yelled back: "What are you talking about? I thought she really didn't know, if you don't leave, I will whip you with a whip." Then, he pulled the reins and rode away .The servant who followed was as silent as a cicada, and walked away without uttering a word.Seeing that they had gone far away, the concierge who had a drowsy look on his face sneered and spat: "What! You want to talk too much when you are a slave, you deserve it! You don't know how to serve people, what a slave!"

Lai Yi'er led the people, and rode out of Xizhimen like the wind, and after two more streets, they entered a narrow alley and arrived at the door of a house.The boy got off his horse and knocked on the door.Lai Yi'er sat on the horse, saw the dim lights inside, and the faint sound of silk and bamboo, so he laughed: "These little sluts can play tricks, they have a lot of fun!"

After a while, someone opened the door and invited Ann, the young man led the horse to the stable to rest and eat, but Lai Yier was led by an old woman into the inner courtyard in three steps.Someone had already reported it to the people in the courtyard. As soon as Laiyi'er stepped into the courtyard, he heard the jingling of the rings, and someone came up to salute: "Master, you are counted!"

It seems that the access control is very strict here, the woman did not reach the second gate, she stopped and did not dare to go any further, the surroundings fell into a short period of darkness, until someone brought up a lamp to illuminate it.

Lai Yi'er smiled, and said: "This is not coming, if you don't come, you little whores will forget about me!" Suddenly, people around him covered their mouths and snickered.When the light came back, I saw three women standing beside Lai Yi'er, one of them was You Shi, and the other two were Xie Luan and Pei Feng.

Seeing the three of them circling around like butterflies wearing flowers to make up their minds, Xie Luan and Pei Feng helped each other to make up their minds, but Youshi couldn't get in his hands, but he realized that he carried a lantern and walked beside the three of them. , in response to Lai Yier's words, he was not very eager to please.At this time, looking at her face through the light, there are thin fish lines at the corners of her eyes, and she does not look very old. Calculated, she is not yet forty, and has never given birth to a child. Older, but it doesn't mean that her charm and vicissitudes are not charm.Anyway, the three of them have been mingling together for the past ten years to serve Lai Yier, and fighting openly and secretly is of course inevitable-how can there be no fighting where there are women?Women are like fighting cocks, two of them start fighting, and one of them can fight with himself in front of the mirror, with those invisible threats and fears—but the intention is well controlled. It can be seen which wind has occupied the high altitude for a long time, and the left and right have been leading the way for a few months.

Lai Yi'er entered the house, and a gust of warm wind blew in, he couldn't help but sit down with a sigh of relief, hugged Xie Luan and Pei Feng while taking a sip of incense.When he looked at Youshi again, he brought a cup of tea with a smile and said, "Master, drink tea." Lai Yier let go of the two, took a sip of the tea, and smiled at Youshi, "Come here too, let's make out affectionate."

Youshi smiled: "How old am I? I'm going crazy with them. I don't have to get out of my waist." She wanted to avoid it.

Xieluan and Peifeng joked next to her: "Sister has become a jade girl now, who was drunk last night and said that she misses you." As they said, they pushed Youshi's intercourse Yi'er into his arms with a smile.

Youshi turned around and smiled, "Little wave hoofs, I told you to beat me..." Lai Yi'er got excited when he heard about it.Youshi wants to hide, how can he hide?Lai Yi'er forced Xiang to take a sip.

The three of them all knew that they came here just for fun, so naturally they didn't dare to be negligent, and after finishing the dinner, Youshi accompanied Luan and Peifeng to persuade them to drink, and looked at each other, as if the pipa in Luan's hand had already exploded. Pei Feng sang: "The red lotus root is fragrant and the jade is in the autumn. I untie the Luosang lightly and go to the Lanzhou alone. Who in the cloud will send the brocade book? When the word geese returns, the moon is full on the west building. The flowers are floating in the water." Ziliu, one kind of lovesickness, two places of worry. There is no way to get rid of this feeling, so I lower my brows, but come to my heart."

Lai Yi'er is different from other businessmen, once he became rich, he deliberately washed away his past, not only picked up the old books, occasionally read "Poems of a Thousand Families" and the like, even listened to the tunes, and listened to the slang of the market The words and songs are some shallow words, which he listened to very well.Both Xie Luan and Pei Feng know this habit clearly.

The three of them had fun for half the night, and when they came, Yi'er stayed in You's room, and Xie Luan and Pei Feng waited on him to wash up before obediently leaving.

However, Youshi felt that Lai Yier was absent-minded, but could only cooperate with him submissively.After tossing for a while, Lai Yi'er climbed off Youshi, didn't speak, just looked out of the window.Youshi also looked out the window, but couldn't see anything. The snow had stopped, there was no moonlight, and the window was scorched black.You Shi watched with him for a long time, opened his mouth to ask, but swallowed the words after thinking about it, and just about to turn over and fall asleep, Lai Yi'er grabbed her shoulder and kissed - leaned vaguely in her ear and said: "I met you today. Xichun."

"Xichun!" You Shi trembled all over, repeating like a dream.This name completely quenched the fire of desire that had just arisen in her.

"Why is it her?" Youshi asked, holding him tightly.

"It's really her..." Lai Yi'er glanced at You Shi, her voice was vague, but her tone was unquestionable.After fiddling for a while, Lai Yier felt her anger flare up again, panting, and yelled at her, "Hurry up!" After a while, she said again, "She stopped by my place for a while, and now she is leaving."

Youshi responded mechanically, as if a large piece of ice had been smashed in his heart, and the ice balls scattered all over the ground, with the past aching on it.

At the fourth watch, You Shi heard a slight noise around him.Turning around, seeing that Lai Yier had woken up, he was busy getting up and helping him to dress.

Lai Yi'er held her down, and said: "Take a rest, you are tired too, you know that I never treat you like a human being, this is from the bottom of my heart, you are no better than Xie Luan and Pei Feng. Back then..." He After a moment of silence, he said with a smile, "Look at me! You can just say such meaningless things."

Youshi leaned on the pillow to look at him, and sighed quietly: "Master is a nostalgic person. If it weren't for you, I, a man with broken flowers and willows, has undergone tremendous changes. How can I live?"

Laiyi was silent, and his expression could not be seen with the lamp on his back.Lai Yi'er put on her clothes rustlingly, turned around and said, "I'm leaving, I'll come back in a few days. What do you want to eat and use, just tell the servants, don't save me." Said and left.This is his habit for many years.If you can't afford to be early, how can you get rich at five o'clock?He understands this truth.Diligence and scheming are also important reasons why he was able to amass a huge family business quickly.

The city is quiet, and the snow marks on the stone road are deep, reflecting the coolness of the twilight.Lai Yi'er didn't know what touched her heart, her thoughts were churning, she let out a long sigh, reined in her horse and looked into the distance, the stars and moon in the sky disappeared, and the long night seemed endless.Suddenly, a few words entered his mind: "Everyone in the world knows that gods are good, only gold and silver can't be forgotten! In the end, I only regret that there are not many gatherings, and when the time comes, my eyes will be closed."

It should have been many, many years ago, when he followed Jia Zhen, Jia Zhen took him out.A group of men watched the snow through the window, and the snowflakes were as big as the feathers of birds.Standing at the door, he saw an old man staggering in the snow, shivering in the cold.He couldn't bear to see it, so he ran over, intending to share some of the wine and beef that Jia Zhen gave him, but the old man refused, saying that he was a monk and a vegetarian.

There was nothing he could do about it, so he gave him a small piece of broken silver that was on his body.

The old man took the silver and thanked him and left. Lai Yier stood in the wind and snow, watching his figure walking away. At that time, he was so young that he suddenly felt so desolate and speechless. He felt that the sorrow in the world was as deep as autumn grass. endlessly.

When the old man left, he sang this song. After so many years, he suddenly remembered it, as if he had dug out the sapphire from his memories, and it was still green and shiny.

Lai Yi'er was dazed in a daze, until the servant next to him called out: "Master—" He froze, then came back to his senses, and rode his horse home.It was less than five o'clock when I got home.Lai Yi'er went straight to the conference hall after entering the door, and saw Ru Hua waiting inside at a glance.Lai Yi'er pushed back the servants, closed the door and calmly said: "You are here."

Ruhua suddenly saw him coming, stood up hastily, almost lost his footing, his heart felt like boiling oil, looked at him and only said "you" in a trembling voice, but couldn't continue the next sentence.

"I have something to do, I'll talk about it later when I get back to my room." Lai Yi'er lowered her eyelids and walked towards the bookcase beside her.In one sentence, the anger in the painting was expressed, and the courage also followed, and said sharply: "It's rare for you to go back to the room late! I waited for you all night..." Lai Yi'er turned to look at her, her eyes were red, and she didn't know she was crying It's still boiled.

"Since that's the case, you should go back and have a good rest, and ask Yan'er and the others to serve you some white fungus soup, so you can get rid of the fire." He said, then lowered his head to flip through the book.

Ruhua stared at him blankly, thinking that the night before last he had braved the heavy snow to accompany her to Jia's funeral, but last night... She was suffering from conflicts in her heart, her body trembling involuntarily, and finally, she slumped down on a chair and wiped her tears Said: "Sometimes, I really don't know if you treat me well or not. That's it, you don't even want to look at me more, and it seems to steal your time by saying a word. If you don't say well, you It's not that I don't care about Liang'er and me... People say that the more a couple gets along, the more they understand each other, but I don't recognize you more and more."

Lai Yi'er was annoyed by what she said, threw away the book, pulled a chair to sit down, and said with a cold face: "What do you want to say, I will accompany you, if you are crying like this, I don't want to do anything anymore! "

"Where did you go last night?" Ru Hua raised his eyes, digging out a very hard question in his heart.

"You don't know where I've been! I don't believe you don't ask the boys, you'll know, why bother to ask me."

"I want you to say it yourself." She is like every ordinary woman suffering from paranoid disease, knowing the result and knowing that speaking will hurt, but she insists on seeking proof.

I didn't have time to speak.

"You raised the outer room." Ru Hua insisted on going his own way.She spoke so quickly, as if she didn't want to give herself and Lai Yi'er a chance to talk back.Lai Yi'er was right, she knew the matter clearly a long time ago, she just wanted him to admit his mistake.

"Who is she?" she asked, staring at him.

"Youshi." Lai Yier said lightly.Looking at the sad and stunned picture, I sighed again, "I didn't want to tell you, you don't go out, she doesn't come in, they live in different places. Why do you need to ask? You are asking for trouble!"

"It's her!" Ru Hua was stunned, "I..." She looked at him, a burst of sadness and resentment shot up like fire, and she couldn't hold it back.She smiled wryly twice, and burst into tears, "It's my fault! You can tell! She is such a person, you don't think it dirty, and you collect it like a treasure. You have raised her for so many years! Pity me You are a deaf and dumb fool, let you stay outside..."

"You've said enough!" Lai Yi'er stood up abruptly, and said sharply, "I'm good enough for you! There is a saying that 'the husband guides the wife', go and see, which wife dares to say that to her husband , don’t look at us suffering together, I can’t let you be so presumptuous!”

Ruhua recalled the sufferings of the two of them serving people together, and felt sad for a moment, his anger subsided a little, and he lowered his voice: "Anyway, you shouldn't raise her, such a person, why do you raise her?"

"That's my business! It's no good for women to ask so many questions!" Lai Yi'er was still angry, and turned away from looking at the painting.There was a dead silence in the room.

"I've been confused for so many years, I don't want to be confused anymore. I want you to tell me, why do you raise a woman who is much older than you and me, and what am I not as good as her?" Ru Hua stood behind him, mournfully asked sadly.

"Ask! Do you know what crime it is to embezzle an official's property? If I don't support her, if I stab her out, you and I and Liang'er will all die!" Lai Yi'er roared angrily with fierce eyes.His face turned livid, and he stared fiercely into the painting, "If you don't die, you have to marry Ning Guta like Jia Zhen! You fight with me for this! You fight with me for this..." He was so angry that he raised his foot and slammed Kicked over the table.

Lai Yi'er's words were like thunder, completely terrified into the painting. "Pursuing the property of criminal officials"!Needless to say, it was Jia Zhen's family property!After thinking through this layer, the secrets that made her even more shocked came one after another: How did the family property get it?Her heart was turbulent, so there was no need to doubt it, it must be You Shi!The two of them got together ten years ago!Ruhua stared at Lai Yi'er bitterly, this bastard, he would love anyone!My own mistress will not let go!He hated the painting to the extreme, but felt that he had nothing to say, his whole body relaxed, let out a breath, collapsed on the chair, and looked at Lai Yier who was still struggling in anger.For a long time, she also had doubts, no matter how capable this person in front of her was, how could she earn a frighteningly large amount of money in just a few years.

A gust of cold wind blew, and Ruhua shivered—she knew that he was not a good stump, she knew it when he dared to use his suicide note to covet Xichun's inheritance.She just didn't expect him to be as cold and cold as a wolf. She saw the green light in his eyes just now, he was really like a wild and unruly wolf!Also, he helped Jia Zhen to persuade her to betray Xichun... Thinking of the past when I entered the painting, it was like standing on a deserted city and looking around, seeing autumn grass stretching across and tombs everywhere, and my heart was desolate.

"You should kill her, that's the end of it!" Ru Hua said quietly.

Hearing her words, Lai Yi'er was stunned for a moment, and turned to look at her, as if she hadn't expected that she would say such a thing.After a pause, he sat down and said, "I thought about it too, but it would take too much trouble and it's not the best policy. With my current status, how many people are staring at me. I don't want to take such a big risk for a woman. Besides, it is almost impossible for her to betray me. She is a family member of a criminal official. Once she surrenders, even if the government does not pursue her previous crimes, she will be punished and confiscated as a slave. I have decided, she dare not betray me!"

Lai Yi'er's eyes flickered, and there was one more thing he didn't say, Youshi is no younger than a little girl, but she has her advantages. She has been the head grandmother of Ning Mansion for so many years, and she has helped him a lot by making indirect remarks in the officialdom and shopping malls What's more, she also brought Xie Luan and Pei Feng.The looks of these two people are no worse than those bought from outside. For the sake of shame, they serve themselves to know their feelings and tastes...

Galloping on them, because these women were their masters before, conquering them is extraordinarily fulfilling.In their hearts, the shame and wounds of the past, under their tenderness and accommodating, in the kiss, gradually faded away.But he, when faced with entering the painting, is often powerless.

Because the shame runs deep.

Into the painting, his wife can't see the dormant shadow in his heart, the wound that he is ready to move - once he doubted himself, whether he can still be a real man.He really loved her, that's why he had to be cold and alienated from her.

These.She doesn't understand.

Enter the painting and walk out of the meeting hall.The sun was already blindingly bright outside.There was no one in the courtyard, and the light and shadows were splashed on the ground, and they were in a mess, which made people's hearts sink even more.This place is a forbidden area, and only the servants can come in to clean it at night. Fortunately, no one saw her embarrassing and haggard.Ruhua had a splitting headache, walked a few steps along the corridor and sat down against the railing, dazed in a daze.Overnight, the man next to him seems to be so strange that he is not like the person next to him. I think I am a scholar in a strange novel. When I return home at night and look under the window, the woman in the room is taking off a thin piece of human skin. draw……

The intention is like that female ghost, his scheming is so deep that she can't stretch her hands out, she can't help being terrified.

Over the years, she has seen Lai Yier turn her hands into clouds and rain, and she has seen many unkind things, and she has gradually become accustomed to it and does not think it is unusual.It was the shock that happened in other people's houses, life and death, family bankruptcy, other people's pain in body, hair and skin, if you can't see it, you can't feel it, and if you can't feel it, you won't feel pain.The so-called pity is just a light breath, and the frown passes by.

Now it was her turn to be the one who got hacked.Pain, and the blood became vivid all over the brain.When did you walk back to the room?I don’t know, lying on the bed suddenly dreaming and waking up, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that I was in the house I was used to sleeping in. The roof was dark and dark, and I could vaguely see the shadows of some flowers and necklaces, and even the carved flowers on the edge of the bed were not spared The male book was painted with gold powder, and some outlines appeared in the twilight.

Ruhua was annoyed, closed his eyes and covered his head with a quilt, and couldn't sleep well, but he was sleepy after all, and fell into a dream.He said he fell asleep, but his heart always seemed to be held by a thread, and he couldn't tell whether it was a dream or waking up.

She saw herself standing behind Feng Ziying, wearing a very starched shirt, standing in front of her, flipping through the books left by Xichun.

"You girl, where has she gone?" He asked leisurely while holding a book.This is a very handsome man, with a calm demeanor like willows by the river.

"The girl went to the back mountain of Guanwai, this time..." Ruhua raised his head and glanced outside, "She is coming down soon too! Sir, please sit down for a while, I will pick it up."

She put down the teacup in her hand and was about to leave.

(End of this chapter)