bookcurios Chapter 302: Cold Wood Spring Blossom
Chapter 302: Cold Wood Spring Blossom
Zhao Fangyu's expression remained unchanged. His pink and white fingertips slowly turned a page of the book, and he half-lay on the recliner and rocked slowly.
The exquisite embroidered shoes were placed on the footstool, and Xingzhi was watching from a distance.
The entire yard was cleaned up. Shen Wan was there, and maids were guarding the entrances. There were also a few guards from the outer courtyard who patrolled the mansion every half an hour.
The scattered sunlight falling on the ground was reflected in Zhao Fangyu's eyes. The spots of light kept jumping with his movements, as if all the fragmented light on the ground was melted into his eyes.
She had been taking medicine these days and felt cold. Zhao Fangyu pulled at the shawl that had fallen off her body and said, "Buy her a better coffin and bury her in a beautiful place."
The little girl remembered Zhao Fangyu's instructions and slowly retreated.
Someone like Chunshao was originally destined to be thrown into a mass grave. The fact that the princess was willing to spend money to buy a coffin for her must mean that she still had some feelings for her.
Xingzhi stopped the maid who was about to leave and said solemnly, "Even though Chunshao is guilty, she has accompanied the princess for a long time. You must not slack off on the coffin. If I find out that you are not paying attention and are just taking advantage of the situation, don't blame me for reporting to the princess and sending you all away."
"You don't have the dignity that Sister Chunshao has in front of the princess."
The little maid immediately put away her thoughts and said honestly, "Yes, Sister Xingzhi."
Xingzhi waited until everyone left before he felt relieved and stood back in his original position.
Chunshao is guilty, but she and Chunshao have known each other for a while, and Chunshao is truly a good sister to Xingzhi, who does not ask for anything in return.
Now, all she could do for Chunshao was to ensure that her body would not be desecrated and her coffin would not be embezzled or made into a piece of wood.
In the yard, Zhao Fangyu suddenly heard the eldest lady calling her and was dazed for a moment. After she reacted, she put down the book, stood up and slowly walked to the eldest lady's side.
The eldest lady held a blooming white peony in her hand, with strands of bright pink slowly spreading from the edges of the petals to the bottom of the leaves.
It was as if the snow jade had given birth to a soul and was growing flesh and blood bit by bit.
The stamens are a perfect shade of light yellow, and their coolness suppresses the tenderness of the pink, making the peony seem to have a noble flavor.
Zhao Fangyu was wearing a goose yellow sleeveless jacket with a double-breasted long-sleeved top with window pattern underneath, which was a perfect match with the peony.
"Everything has been dealt with?"
Zhao Fangyu tidied up the scattered hair on his forehead and said calmly: "It's been dealt with."
Everything she did was aboveboard and she never concealed anything. How could she possibly hide something when she made such a big fuss?
In the past, the Jinyiwei came to the house from time to time, but Zhao Fangyu did not deal with Chunshao to avoid conspicuousness. As soon as the matter was settled, he would deal with Chunshao immediately.
The environment is no longer suitable for fishing.
Unfortunately, nothing was caught.
Fortunately, now we can use the death of Beizhenfusi to put the matter of winning over the powerful and wealthy to do business on the table in a reasonable and fair way.
"How are the guards arranged?"
The eldest lady didn't know much about the matter. It was difficult to ask in detail because there were so many people around. Now that there was no one around, she asked in a low voice about the follow-up.
Zhao Fangyu supported the eldest lady, and the eldest lady also held her hand, and the two of them walked slowly in the yard.
"Originally, they wanted him to fabricate an injury to delay his journey and return to the border. Unexpectedly, there were people in Jiangnan who could make human skin masks. Xuanbi often went to Jiangnan. In the dark places of Jiangnan, his human skin masks were prepared all year round. After he passed the Jinyiwei's interrogation, someone else pretended to be him and went to the border. Xuanbi then changed his appearance and went to Chenzhou."
This trip back and forth took a lot of time, and the eldest lady was always worried that this matter would go beyond expectations.
"Man can conquer nature. If I can't, I've tried my best."
"As his wife, I have done my best to achieve this."
He risked his life and joined the game, murdering the commander of the Northern Pacification Division of the Jinyiwei outside the city.
She has finally lived up to Zhou Qinghe's sincere treatment over the years.
The eldest lady slowly let out a breath of anger and told Zhao Fangyu the whole story.
"The capital has become increasingly chaotic this year. I thought that after your banquet is over, I would let your father leave."
The eldest lady had this idea for a long time. As Zhao Minshan became more and more stupid, the eldest lady secretly asked Aunt Tao to increase the dosage of the medicine.
Now Zhao Minshan is paralyzed in bed and can't even get out of the door.
He probably had some awareness in the last two days and wanted to go out to find a doctor, but before he left, he was discovered by Aunt Tao, who coaxed him to her yard, and gave him a bowl of knockout drug. She then mixed the remaining drug powder with water and rolled it into balls, and drank all of it...
It is created to look like a person having a stroke, and when the person wakes up that night, he has become a disabled person with squinting eyes and a crooked mouth, unable to move.
Probably because I ate too much at one time, now even my ears don’t work well.
Aunt Tao asked to make amends for her crime and took care of Zhao Minshan in the outer courtyard every day. She took care of him so much that he lost a lot of weight in half a month.
The First Lady raised Zhao Minshan like she raised pigs and dogs, thinking that if the world really got into chaos one day, she would call all the children back home to observe mourning. This was better than being caught and becoming a handle for others to use to control Zhao Fangyu and the First Lady.
There was unrest in the court. If the emperor really framed Zhou Qinghe for this matter, the Zhao family would inevitably be implicated.
In the worst case, the family will be in mourning.
How important is it for an official to hold an office?
If it really comes to that, it would be better to be an ordinary citizen than to be in the court, being bullied and kicked when you are down, living in fear all the time, worrying about the disaster that may befall you at any time.
But now is not the best time, as Zhao Fangyu still has a grand banquet to hold. This banquet is related to whether the Li family will be controlled by the emperor in future wars.
That's why the doctor kept Zhao Minshan for a few more days.
“The Wang family and the Lu family, don’t worry.”
Zhao Fangyu turned back in surprise: "Mother?"
A gust of wind blew towards him, and the eldest lady helped Zhao Fangyu to straighten his jacket.
"It's nothing serious, just keeping in touch with our childhood friends."
As she spoke, she reached out and fiddled with Zhao Fangyu's dangling earrings. Many people don't like to wear bright green jadeite as they think it looks old-fashioned and can't hold up.
But Zhao Fangyu's fair complexion would only look more radiant with jade earrings as white as water.
"When your mother was still a girl, she was also a very famous girl with many close friends. How could she stop contacting them just because she got married and had children?"
They met because of family, and knew each other because of their affirmation of each other's temperament and character. They are close friends, not biological sisters, but they are no less close.
The woman becomes distant from her lover because she gets married and has children, but the love between them does not disappear?
There were many things that Zhao Fangyu was not comfortable talking about, so the First Lady came to speak up for him. She helped Zhao Fangyu to open up the channels layer by layer.
Although it is the effort of one individual, the benefit to the family will last for generations.
"We are one family, so there is no need to talk about different things. This matter will benefit future generations, so how can it all be shouldered by you alone?"
"How long can you hold on with your small body?"
Zhao Fangyu was pulled by the eldest lady and slowly embraced in her arms.
"In fact, Cui Fu told me a lot."
"You've had a hard time these years. It seems like you've made it easy, but in fact, you've been thinking a lot at every step."
"Luckily you are my child, otherwise I would have a lot of headaches."
Zhao Fangyu felt relieved and decided not to leave. He just stayed quietly in the arms of the eldest lady.
This feeling of having someone to back you up is really... really good.
She couldn't think of anything for a moment and just wanted to lean slowly on the eldest lady's shoulder.
"Mother..."
"Actually, I have selfish motives."
The eldest lady doesn't think there is anything wrong with being selfish.
"Humans have seven emotions and six desires, so why can't we have selfish desires?"
"If even a saint can't treat everyone equally, why should a mediocre person bother himself?"
"There are countless things in the world that are not what you want, and there are more than thousands of things that are not what you want."
"You don't have to blame yourself. It's good enough that you have grown up safely and soundly until now."
Living is tiring enough, if you keep blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong... then what's the point of living like this?
"If you don't like me, don't come near me. If you are unhappy, let go and leave."
"This world is big. One more person like you won't make much difference, and one less person like you won't make much difference. If you are the only one missing, then it's fate and time."
"You are so young, but you are already living such a hard life. What will you do when you reach my age?"
The eldest lady had actually wanted to tell it a long time ago, but she was afraid that Zhao Fangyu would think too much.
"A little girl should behave like a little girl. She is less than 20 years old, so she is still very young."
He slowly buried himself in the arms of the eldest lady, feeling extremely at ease. His heart, which had been floating around for a while, suddenly found a place to settle down.
"Mother, I am so lucky."
In such an era, she is very lucky to meet a mother like the eldest lady who is not harsh to concubines, who is able to see and listen to others, who has foresight and knows how to care for others.
The eldest lady held Zhao Fangyu's thin body in her arms, but what she was thinking was, if only Fangjin were here at this moment.
It's a pity that after raising my children, I can only watch them separate little by little.
She was better off, as her children were right in front of her and she could take care of them immediately if anything happened.
The eldest lady thought of her old husband and mother who were far away in Longxi, and her heart was slightly shocked. How must her father and mother have felt when they watched their two lovely daughters marry and come to the capital thousands of miles away?
How bitter it must have been when he heard that his sister had been driven half crazy by the bullying of the Duke of Li's Mansion, and that she was trapped in the palace at such a young age?
Raising a son for a hundred years means worrying for ninety-nine of them. When the eldest lady thought about this sentence again, her heart was filled with other emotions and her eyes turned slightly red.
"If you are a good person, your life will be good."
"You and Fangwei are both my daughters. Some people are surrounded by wealth and can only see their own unhappiness, while others are covered in mud and can also embark on a smooth road."
“Only when one can stand firm and walk steadily can one see the infinite beauty of this world.”
Zhao Fangyu nodded and slowly got up from the eldest lady's arms.
"Then... let's hold the funeral after the banquet."
Zhao Minshan's life and death was decided so hastily that Zhao Fangyu suddenly thought of the old lady and asked, "Did grandma ask?"
What she actually wanted to ask was whether her grandmother had noticed.
After all, they are mother and son. Even if Zhao Minshan is not a good person, he is still her only child.
The older people get, the more cunning they become. Could it be that the old lady can't see anything and cause some trouble?
The eldest lady shook her head uncertainly. In fact, she was not sure whether the old lady saw it or not.
"The old lady got the news that night and went to see him in person. She didn't say anything. She sat by the bed and watched for a long time, then went back to the temple."
"I just said it was a sin before I left."
Zhao Fangyu guessed that the old lady probably noticed something unusual, but since the eldest lady had never taken Zhao Minshan's life and all the promising children in the family were born to her, she simply pretended to be deaf and dumb.
"When people get older, they start to believe in retribution. Karma is cyclical, and justice is clear. My father has harmed Xiaowu, and Xiaowu will not accept this."
Zhao Fangyu doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, but that doesn't mean she won't use them.
She doesn't believe it, but many people do, at least the old lady does.
Otherwise, why would the old lady have been eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist scriptures for so many years?
Otherwise, I wouldn't have said that sinful thing.
The eldest lady squeezed Zhao Fangyu's fingertips and said, "Let Xiaowu rest in peace."
She didn't believe in these things before, but now she wants to believe them so that she can accumulate some blessings for her children.
Zhao Fangyu pulled the eldest lady and said seriously, "Mother, living people are the most important. You said that the two most important things in the life of Longxi people are eating and staying alive."
"If Xiaowu were alive, how could he be willing to kneel down and worship Xihuan when he saw him?"
"He looked down on women and asked them to kneel down. How could he not think of sending Xiaowu back to the Song family and withdrawing the lawsuit? What would be the outcome for Xiaowu?"
"He knows. He is a man. He knows better than anyone what men think."
"He just doesn't care about Xiaowu's death. He treats Xiaowu like a cat or a dog. He doesn't care whether she has learned any skills or whether she can gain a foothold in her husband's family. He doesn't care whether Song Yuan will bully her. He marries Xiaowu off like completing a job. Once the job is done, Xiaowu's life or death has nothing to do with him!"
"He only cares about his career, his reputation, and whether he will be ridiculed by the censors. Has he ever thought about Xiaowu?"
"He didn't even think about me and my elder sister. He sent Xiaowu back to the Song family, so his reputation was good, but what about me and my elder sister? If I marry the wrong person, and the news that my father sent Xiaowu back to the Song family spreads out, how will my husband's family view me? How can they tell whether I marry to be a mistress or a slave who works like a cow and a horse, supports children and grandchildren, and accepts beatings and scoldings?"
Zhao Fangyu doesn't like Xiaowu, but she dislikes Zhao Minshan even more.
"On the wedding day, we all watched. Those boxes were not betrothal gifts at all. They were clearly the money the Song family gave to Xiaowu to buy his life!"
If Zhao Minshan had stepped forward, even if it was just to reprimand Song Yuan, Zhao Fangyun would not have ended up like this.
"The cycle of cause and effect leads to unfavorable retribution."
"Xiaowu died because of him. Now he is deeply saddened by Xiaowu and cannot sleep peacefully. This is retribution."
The eldest lady looked at Zhao Fangyu for a long while, then slowly patted her arm and said, "Winter trees never wither, spring flowers bloom. The Zhao family is lucky to have such good girls like you and Fangjin."
Zhao Fangyu shook his head again slowly in denial: "The Zhao family's fortune lies in the meritorious service rendered by Old Master Zhao and in marrying the daughter of the Longxi Li family, not in my father's or my own."
"Only if I get what I want one day, I will have the nerve to say that the Zhao family is lucky to have me in this life."
"Today, the Zhao family and I are where we are today, all thanks to my mother's careful support behind the scenes over the years."
"If I achieve my wish and my mother still sits firmly in the main courtyard, that would be the real Hanmu Chunhua."