Novel Lived
Chapter 13 - Yuncheng: Master, do you have to go?
Zhong Yansheng slept until almost 5 o'clock in the evening, before he woke up.
His hair was disheveled from sleeping. He was dazed for a long time before he came to his senses. He realized that he was lying on the couch. He sat up slowly and found that he was wearing a loose royal blue robe.
The robe was too big for him, covering his whole body in it. If he got closer, he could smell the cold fragrance mixed with the fragrance of bitter medicine.
Zhong Yansheng rubbed his eyes, got off the couch holding his outer robe, and called out in a hoarse voice: "Brother?"
There was no trace of Xiao Nong in the study.
Zhong Yansheng went out of the door holding his clothes, and walked around the yard like a headless fly. Just as he was about to go out to continue looking for someone, he ran into Zhan Rong who walked in from outside the yard.
Zhan Rong glanced at the robe in Zhong Yansheng's arms and his eyelids twitched a few times.
If you don't cover others with a quilt, just cover them with your own robe, right?
Zhong Yansheng was unaware and smiled at Zhan Rong: "Guard Zhan, have you seen my brother?"
This was the first time in Zhan Rong's life that he saw someone who dared to sleep next to the prince and even get close to his arms. The key point was that he was still alive after doing all this.
The adopted son of Lord Anping is truly extraordinary.
He looked at Zhong Yansheng with a little more awe in his eyes: "Back to the young master, the master has something to do and has left. If you want to see the master, can I take you there?"
"No, please say hello to my brother for me. It's time for me to go back."
Zhong Yansheng was very polite and would say hello to Xiao Nong every time he came and left.
Zhan Rong had no objection and nodded in agreement.
Zhong Yansheng was puzzled by the three-point respect in his tone. He returned to the room, folded the robe carefully and neatly, and then followed Zhanrong outside.
Zhan Rong considered carefully and said what Xiao Nong had told him: "By the way, young master, the master has some things to deal with tomorrow, you can come back later."
The scene of trial and execution is too bloody, and this delicate young master may not be able to bear it.
Zhong Yansheng nodded obediently.
I was puzzled.
How come Master Zhen is locked up in this yard, and there are problems every day? Besides, his eyesight is not good, and his legs and feet are not convenient.
It's really quite a disability.
When he returned to the city in the carriage, Zhong Yansheng had almost made up his mind.
When the real young master returns to the Marquis' Mansion, it will no longer be appropriate for him to stay there. After all, his presence is somewhat awkward, and he should leave immediately.
Fortunately, he still had money in his private treasury, which was enough for him to eat and drink for a while.
But Zhong Yansheng had no idea where to go or what to do after leaving the Marquis' Mansion.
He is not that mature. He has done his best to do what he thinks he should do. He really doesn't know what to do with the rest.
Yuncheng didn't see what that little vixen, who seduced Zhong Yansheng, looked like today, and he felt heavy.
Zhong Yansheng had something on his mind, and felt a little depressed. When he stepped into Chunwu Courtyard and heard Yun Cheng's hurried greeting, he realized that someone was waiting for him.
Zhong Yansheng looked up, laughed, and ran over to shout, "Mom? You are here?"
Waiting in the courtyard was the Marquis's wife whom he had not seen for a long time.
Recently, every time Zhong Yansheng wanted to pay his respects, he heard that the Marquis's wife had gone to worship Buddha.
When he was in Gusu, Mrs. Marquis often went to worship Buddha, but not as frequently as now. She would leave early and come back late. Zhong Yansheng was worried every day whether Mrs. Marquis would end the world of mortals one day.
Seeing Zhong Yansheng, Madam Hou raised her hand and gently straightened his messy temples: "Yuan Yuan sneaked out to play again? Did you make friends outside?"
Zhong Yansheng didn't dare to mention Changliu Villa, and replied vaguely: "Yeah."
Fortunately, Mrs. Marquis didn't intend to ask about this matter in detail. She dismissed the others, took Zhong Yansheng to sit down in the pavilion, and asked him in detail about his recent situation and how he was doing.
This is very common. Mrs. Marquis would ask these questions in such detail in the past.
But Zhong Yansheng looked at her slightly red eyes and her occasional lack of concentration, and a strange premonition gradually came into her heart. Her clear pupils looked at Mrs. Marquis quietly.
Sure enough, after asking everything she could, Mrs. Marquis suddenly fell silent, looking at Zhong Yansheng with tender and sad eyes, as if hesitating and unable to speak.
Zhong Yansheng was very familiar with those eyes.
When he was young, he often had nightmares and high fevers. Many times when he was tortured by the high fever and became unconscious, the Marquis' wife held him in her arms, looked at him with such eyes, begged the gods and Buddhas not to take him away, and fed him medicine with trembling hands. The medicine was mixed with tears and was particularly bitter, but Zhong Yansheng drank it obediently one gulp at a time.
During those years, the Marquis's wife always had a gloomy look on her face, until Zhong Yansheng got down to walk, stumbled into her arms, and then her eyes slowly brightened up.
Zhong Yansheng didn't want her to be so sad anymore.
He took the initiative to reach out and hold Madam Hou's hands, and smiled faintly, his eyes clear and bright: "Mother, do I have a brother?"
Mrs. Marquis was stunned for a moment.
She then heard Zhong Yansheng say: "Do you still remember the nightmare I told you after I fell into the water and woke up?"
Madam Hou's voice was very hoarse: "Of course mother remembers."
At that time, Zhong Yansheng had just woken up from a nightmare about the future. He tentatively said that he dreamed that he was not his parents' child. The Marquis of Huai'an and his wife could not hide the strangeness on their faces.
"I have always kept in mind what you said then." Zhong Yansheng patted her back gently like Mrs. Marquis comforted him in the past, "So don't worry too much, just do whatever you want. In my heart, you will always be my mother.”
The Marquis' wife obviously didn't expect Zhong Yansheng to say this. She knew that he already knew everything. Her lips trembled, and she suddenly stretched out her hand, hugged Zhong Yansheng into her arms, and couldn't help sobbing: "Yuan'er, mother, mother really, really..."
"I know." Zhong Yansheng took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears and coaxed her gently, "I know."
Although neither of them explained what they meant, they both roughly understood each other's meaning.
After the Marquis's wife calmed down for a while, she took the handkerchief and wiped her tears herself. After a while, she said softly, "Yuan Yuan, in two days... Dad and Mom want to take your brother back home."
As if she was afraid that Zhong Yansheng would mind and feel sad, she quickly added: "Mother plans to let him live in the west courtyard first."
The west courtyard is usually uninhabited and is very desolate. The point is, it is far away from Chunwu Courtyard where Zhong Yansheng lives, so there is almost no possibility of running into it.
When Zhong Yansheng heard that he was bringing Master Zhen back, he felt surprised and mixed emotions. After hearing the second part of the sentence, he shook his head and said seriously: "Mom, you don't have to be like this. The West Courtyard is empty and desolate, and not comfortable to live in. There are several well-renovated courtyards next to Chunwu Courtyard, so it's good for my brother to live here.”
He secretly established a good relationship with the real young master, so he didn't have to worry about not getting along with him.
The more sensible Zhong Yansheng acted, the more complicated Mrs. Marquis felt in her heart. She couldn't help but ask softly: "Yuan Yuan, do you blame mother?"
"Of course not." Zhong Yansheng tilted his head and blinked in confusion, "You didn't do anything wrong."
The person who should the least feel guilty is the mother. She just misses her long-lost flesh and blood. What's wrong with that? No one can blame her.
Mrs. Marquis came here originally to reveal some inside information to Zhong Yansheng and slowly let him accept it. Unexpectedly, Zhong Yansheng's attitude was so calm and peaceful, which made her speechless and could not say anything she had prepared before coming.
She looked at Zhong Yansheng, who had been quiet and well-behaved since childhood, and couldn't help but soften her voice: "Yuan Yuan, do you want to know... what kind of person is my brother?"
Zhong Yansheng thought to himself that he understood it quite well, and nodded obediently.
Mrs. Marquis smiled and rubbed his head gently: "Your brother has a good temper."
Good temper?
Zhong Yansheng recalled the brother from Changliu Villa who used a sword to challenge him the first time they met, and threw the knife to scare him the second time they met. He was silent for a moment and answered with difficulty: "Yes."
"Very easy to get along with too."
He is moody and can turn hostile at any time.
Zhong Yansheng was silent again, and then he responded with difficulty: "Yes."
"He also has a very aloof temperament and won't make things difficult for others."
I held him down every day and read books to hypnotize him in front of the bed.
Zhong Yansheng was silent for a long time: "Yeah."
"Mother believes that you two can get along well."
Zhong Yansheng smiled and said, "Okay, don't worry."
The Marquis's wife spoke a lot more incoherently before leaving Chunwu Courtyard, looking back every few steps.
Zhong Yansheng sat quietly in the pavilion for a while, then got up and walked into the study.
A few days ago, his painting was completed.
A painting is divided into three parts for painting, seven parts for mounting, and the steps of mounting and backing were all done patiently by himself without anyone else interfering. After adding signatures on the scroll and other steps, it was completed today.
Zhong Yansheng unfolded the entire scroll, examined it, and put it into the painting tube with satisfaction.
During these days of going to Changliu Villa, he never talked much to his brother about the topics of his parents and Huai'an Marquis Mansion. He mentioned it once or twice, but was dismissed. After two or three times, he no longer had the courage to talk about it.
When he goes to Changliu Courtyard tomorrow, he will take this painting with him as a gift, and tell his brother all the words that he has never had the courage to say face to face, and tell his brother that his parents miss him very much, and tell him that his parents miss him very much and did not mean to leave him out in the villa.
As for the fact that his parents are going to bring him back home, it is a big surprise and can be kept secret for the time being.
After putting away the paintings, Zhong Yansheng began to look at the small study again, and also looked at the layout and scenery outside the house, wondering where to start erasing his traces, so that his brother would not feel awkward when he moved in.
He was holding the painting tube in deep thought when there was a knock on the study door. Yun Cheng popped his head in with a bad look on his face, "Master, someone downstairs wanted to secretly pass a letter to you, but I found out and stopped them. It's another invitation letter from the third young master of the Duke Pei Mansion. Do you want to take a look?"
Didn't I reject your all letters? Why are you writing to me again?
Zhong Yansheng didn't want to cause such troublesome people to the Marquis Mansion when he was still the young master of the Huai'an Marquis Mansion: "Bring it over and let me take a look."
Yun Cheng was extremely fed up with Meng Qiping's incessant nagging, but that person really couldn't be offended at will. He handed the intercepted letter to Zhong Yansheng with a frown.
Zhong Yansheng opened it and took a look, then frowned.
The content of the letter was almost the same as before, with only a few more sentences.
Meng Qiping said at the end of the letter that he knew who had exposed the matter of the fake young master, and if Zhong Yansheng wanted to know, he could go to Yunzhongfang alone to meet him at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
There has been so much rumors in the capital these days that even if Zhong Yansheng is not very smart, he can guess that someone is fanning the flames behind the scenes, and even the Marquis of Huai’an can't suppress it.
Maybe someone was targeting their house.
The words in the dream originally said that the true young master formed an alliance with others to bring down the Marquis Mansion, but it did not specify who it was. Now the true young master should not take action. Zhong Yansheng was worried that the person causing trouble behind the scenes was that person.
Meng Qiping comes from a well-off family, maybe he really knows something.
It is easy to hide from an open spear, but difficult to guard against a hidden arrow. Zhong Yansheng wanted to know who it was and remind the Marquis of Huai'an to pay attention.
Seeing Zhong Yansheng staring at the invitation letter for a long time, Yun Cheng had a bad feeling: "Master, are you planning to go?"
Zhong Yansheng thought for a long time, nodded, and said seriously: "I want to go see him."
Meng Qiping made an appointment at 3 p.m. at the Yunzhongfang - the same pleasure boat on the river outside the Jiuxiang Tower we met last time. The area was quite prosperous, and he seemed quite upright and didn't seem like he would do anything tricky.
It's just that letting Zhong Yansheng go alone is a bit suspicious.
Yun Cheng's voice could not help but rise a few notches: "What if he just wants you to let your guard down so that he can attack you?"
Zhong Yansheng put down the letter and looked at Yun Cheng seriously: "I'm just going to listen to what he has to say and leave after listening. There's no way he could kidnap me away in broad daylight, right?"
At least on the surface, he is still the eldest son of the Huai'an Marquis Mansion.
Besides, maybe they were just overthinking, and Meng Qiping might not have so many bad intentions at all?
Zhong Yansheng is not so narcissistic that he thinks anyone who sees him will have improper thoughts about him.
Yuncheng was persuaded with difficulty.
It seems so. No matter how lustful Meng Qiping is, he wouldn't dare to lay a hand on the young master.
He was still hesitant, but Zhong Yansheng had already made his decision.
It just so happens that he can go to Changliu Villa later tomorrow and can meet Meng Qiping first, so he just needs to move quickly.
The next day, the two left the Marquis' Mansion to keep an appointment with Meng Qiping.
Halfway through, Yuncheng felt a little uneasy again: "Master, do you have to go?"
Zhong Yansheng held the painting tube, lowered his eyelashes, thought for a while, raised his eyes dark and bright, and said stubbornly: "I must."
All right.
The young master usually has a very good temper, rarely gets angry, and never gets too obsessed with things. But when he is furious, it is very difficult to coax him, and when he is really obsessed with something, eight horses can't pull him back.
Yun Cheng had been with Zhong Yansheng since he was nine years old, and he knew his temper. He sighed, took the painting tube from Zhong Yansheng's arms, and prepared to put it in the rented carriage later: "After meeting with the Third Young Master Meng, it will probably be the end of the afternoon. You still have to go to Changliu Villa to deliver the painting? Will you make it in time?"
Zhong Yansheng estimated the time and said confidently, "It's still in time."
If nothing unexpected happens.