On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Anqing Palace.

The slender girl brought out a pot of water chestnut cake from the stove room, which is a traditional dessert snack in Zhejiang and Han China. Steamed with mixed water chestnut powder, its color is tea yellow, translucent, can be folded but not cracked, pouting and continuously, soft, slippery, cool, tough and both, the taste is extremely sweet, every household in Zhejiang and Han countries will do this water chestnut cake on the occasion of the New Year, it is said that this Zhejiang Han King Xun traveled to the country on the occasion, at that time, coincided with the horseshoe harvest, the Zhejiang Han King according to the local habits of fresh food, feel fragrant and sweet, is to save fresh horseshoe after a number of want to wait for the share of food. Soon, the fresh horseshoe began to rot, so Long Kun used the baking method, saying that the horseshoe was peeled and mashed and placed in a kettle, and slowly roasted into powder. The powder is boiled into a paste and eaten by the villagers, which is said to be no different from the feeling of fresh water chestnut cake.

When she was a child, Ye Weiwei didn't know why she came to this world, until her mother made her a pot of water chestnut cake on a cold winter night, and she felt that it was interesting to live in this world for the first time.

She used to like to eat, and now it is no exception, blowing off the firecracker crumbs on the stone table, she put the wooden plate on the stone table, pulled out the knife tied around her waist, poked the surface of the water chestnut cake, and after making sure that it was solidified, she put down and cut off a piece, rolled it on the tip of the knife and chewed it slowly, without feeling ladylike at all.

After this year, Ye Weiwei will be seventeen years old, according to the book, this is called the year of the dancing elephant, in the country of bottles, a girl of her age who is not a small jasper, light and lovely, will be dizzy when the wind blows, and cry when reciting a poem, in Ye Weiwei's words, this is called hypocrisy!

Ye Weiwei has never had a Chinese New Year's Eve meal with her father since she was a child, and even the next person will not come to send her a meal, she listened to the sound of firecrackers outside the house last night, the house was lonely, the thin brocade quilt seemed to be wrapped in a piece of ice, she shrunk in the quilt, silently wished at the fireworks that exploded in the sky, hoping that everything would be fine in the coming year.

She also shrunk in the quilt last year and made a wish, but this year is also not good.

's mother is a lowly washerwoman, who came to the laundry room after being drunk by Liu Kang, the emperor of bottles, and drunk and disorderly sex after seeing Ye Weiwei's mother, which is why Ye Weiwei was born.

At first, Liu Kang would still come to visit his daughter, in her earliest and earliest memories, she still remembered that she was riding on her father's neck, Liu Kang, who was above 10,000 people, was lying on the ground and howling like a stallion, he gradually lost interest in the child's mother, and then the mother and daughter lived in the most remote Taiqing courtyard, it is said that those cold concubines lived in the past, and then there was a concubine Sijun who hated, so she hanged herself on the door beam, and then not to mention his father, even those eunuchs did not want to come, every New Year's festival is spent by the mother and daughter together, make a pot of water chestnut cake, fry a few dumplings for Ye Weiwei, and have warm rice wine, this year is over。

When he was a child, Ye Weiwei was not sensible, watching his brother and sister wearing brocade clothes, riding high horses, wearing treasure knives, pulling his mother's sleeve and asking why they were all the children of his father, but he didn't have these, whenever this time, his mother would always squat down, gently wipe away the tears on her face, and tell her not to cry.

"Weiwei, my mother is just an ordinary washerwoman, unlike your brother and sister's mother, who is a famous lady and a royal lady, you don't have to think about what they have, and don't fight, because only in this way are you safe. ”

She couldn't get angry, so she went to sneak to one of her brothers' bedroom, and after seeing a golden splendid rattan ball, she stole the rattan ball to the Taiqing courtyard, and played alone in the courtyard, and then her mother saw the rattan ball, and scolded her where she got it back, and she didn't know why her mother, who had always loved herself, was so angry, so she cried. The mother snatched the rattan ball from her arms and was about to take it to the stove room to burn it, which was too clear for outsiders.

Her brother lost his temper after losing the rattan ball, and then someone came to tell the master that Ye Weiwei had come here just now, he thought that the master called her to come, so he did not stop her, and then the brother took his mother and a group of evil slaves to the Taiqing Palace, and the moment he stepped in, he saw the rattan ball in Ye Weiwei's mother's hand, and immediately rolled on the ground, crying and shouting, asking his mother to administer justice for him.

The favorite concubine of Liu Kang ordered her subordinates to take Ye Weiwei away, she wanted to personally punish this girl with unclean hands and feet, the mother fell to the ground with a plop, begging the favorite concubine not to take away her daughter, her daughter did something wrong, she was willing to repay ten times, this favorite concubine agreed, and let the evil slaves take her away, and beat her with thirty sticks, as for Ye Weiwei was locked in the room, looking at the figure of her mother being taken away outside the window, tears flowed down her face.

Later, the mother was carried back, lying on the bed and dying, the body was extremely stiff, and the face was bloodless, and since then the mother's physical condition has plummeted, and there have been several times when I accidentally fainted and fell into the basin when I was doing laundry, but fortunately Ye Weiwei saw and rescued my mother, otherwise I would have choked to death by this laundry water.

After the mother suddenly fell seriously ill, lying on the bed and unable to move, Ye Wei felt sorry for his mother, ran to the imperial infirmary every day, begging the doctors inside to prescribe medicine to his mother, an old lady doctor saw that she was pitiful, so she prescribed a pair of medicine to her mother according to the prescription, Ye Weiwei was full of joy to hold the medicine back, accidentally fell, and the herbs all over the ground fell into the muddy water, she was stunned for a moment, howling and crying......

After crying, she picked up the herb from the muddy water, took it back, washed it carefully, and after frying it, she broke her mother's mouth and poured her to drink.

Ye Weiwei then remembered that tonight was Chinese New Year's Eve, so he quickly got up, ran to the stove room to cut water chestnuts, boiled sugar water, the grass-colored woman on the bed smelled the fragrance in the stove, turned her head to look at the falling snow outside the window, and slowly closed her eyes.

When an eight-year-old girl pushes open the door of her mother's room carrying a bowl of warm water chestnut cake, she loses the most important person in her life.

Since that Chinese New Year's Eve, she has lost her mother, and her mother's death may be just one more earthen bun for this palace, but for Ye Weiwei, it seems that the world is buried in that earthen bun.

She spent the New Year with her mother's cold corpse in her arms, until the smell of the corpse was smelled by the passing eunuchs, and quickly went to inform His Majesty the Emperor, and then Liu Kang personally came to the Taiqing Courtyard and saw the rotten corpse on the bed, and the skinny girl in the corner...... She hadn't left the house all these days, and she was kept alive by a pot of water chestnuts, and she thought that if she had eaten this plate of water chestnuts, she might be able to see her mother in a few days.

When Liu Kang asked people to move the corpse away, Ye Weiwei pounced on his father and tore and bited, like a little wolf cub, Liu Kang did not push her away, let it writhe like a statue, and did not move at all, and then Ye Wei sobbed silently, and repeatedly muttered in his mouth: "Why did you give birth to me...... Why did you give birth to me...... Why did you give birth to me......

She didn't know what she and her mother had done wrong, and it was clear that her father was the emperor of the Bottle Kingdom, but she lived like a child without a father.

After her mother was buried, Liu Kang wanted her to live with her brothers and sisters, Ye Wei took off the white hat on her head and continued to return to the Taiqing Courtyard, she didn't want to go except here, she felt that her mother's soul was here, in this house.

She cut off a piece of water chestnut cake and threw it into the corner, a white wolf came out of nowhere, looked at the water chestnut cake on the ground and swallowed it three times and two times, and then wagged her tail at Ye Wei, as if begging for the next piece, Ye Wei danced her fist at it, hesitated for a moment, cut off a piece and threw it at the white wolf.

The white wolf's fur is white, the eyes are big and blue, the eyes are blazing, it spreads its legs and pounces on Ye Weiwei's legs and kisses and bites, it is also a coincidence, on the day of Ye Weiwei's mother's burial, there was a female wolf in the wolf house who had a difficult birth, and a lot of deaths were left in the wolf, but this little white wolf was left, Liu Kang saw it and ordered someone to beat the female wolf to death, and then gave the little white wolf to Ye Weiwei, and then Ye Weiwei fed the little white wolf with a warm towel soaked in yak milk, and the little white wolf curled up in her arms after drinking the milk, stretched out her pink little tongue and licked her palm, that pitiful look broke her heart, she named it Mao Mao, the same as her name, Weiwei, Mao Mao。

She gently stroked the wolf's head, and suddenly an extremely harsh ridicule came from behind her, she turned her head to look, her good mood disappeared in an instant, and she pulled down her face: "Liu Zhiwei, if you don't want to be chased and beaten by me, hurry up and disappear for me!"

The boy was not angry, and looked at her with half a disdainful look: "Ye Weiwei, how much does your dog sell, the gatekeeper in my yard didn't know what he ate a few days ago, and he fell to the ground the next day and ran out of gas, just missing a gatekeeper dog, you say a price, what you have is money." ”

This person is also one of Liu Kang's many children, two years younger than Ye Weiwei, but his life is a little better than Ye Weiwei, his mother is one of Liu Kang's forgotten concubines, just like this, he can come and go freely in this palace every day, brocade clothes and jade food, never need to worry about his livelihood like Ye Weiwei, life is leisurely, idle all day long, and his favorite thing to do is to bully his half-sister.

She said categorically: "Not for sale!"

"Ye Weiwei, do you have this thing?" He took out a red envelope from his arms with a proud face, the corners of Ye Weiwei's eyes twitched, and he didn't look at the scarlet and dazzling thing, her mother had died a long time ago, who would give her this thing.

"This red envelope was specially sent by my father and the emperor today, and it is not much, there are 1,000 taels of silver tickets in it, just buy your white dog, are you arrogant?" he laughed, his nose was almost raised to the sky, in fact, where would Liu Kang personally send any red envelopes, but he just ordered his eunuchs to send them one by one, he had more than fifty children, and the number of grandchildren could not be counted.

"If you say it's not for sale, it's not for sale!" The girl raised her eyebrows, glaring angrily, the white wolf also felt the anger of the owner, and grinned at the boy in the corner, the boy was suddenly happy, and said more and more excitedly: "Today I want to take your dog away, go back tonight to make dog meat, do you want to take you a copy, you have raised it for so many years without merit and hard work." ”

She looked at the hateful and hateful face, and sure enough, her father's children were bastards like him, and she said coldly to the white wolf: "Go! bite him!"

I don't know if it can understand human words, in short, Ye Weiwei said that it really rushed up, and the next second it had already pounced on his shoulder, and opened his mouth to ask, the boy cried and screamed, Ye Weiwei also panicked, rushed up and pulled away the white wolf, although she looked at the slender figure, but the strength was not small, she held the white wolf and pulled it away from the boy's shoulder, the knitted red embroidered gray robe was all blood, the boy looked at the girl holding the big wolf in his arms, and couldn't help choking: "You actually dare to let the dog bite me...... You're so daring...... I...... I'm going to tell my father to let her throw you to feed the wolves!"

She saw a small wound on his shoulder, originally the white wolf just gently gnawed him with his front teeth, and he was stunned and struggled to make him covered in blood, if he had a heavy mouth, he would have been a corpse, he breathed on the ground and stepped back with his hands: "Look what good you have done? You are as bad as your dog, I am going to find my mother! Let her beat your dog to death!"

Ye lowered his head slightly, and looked at him with an extremely cold and condensed gaze, just like looking at the harlequin on the stage, the boy retreated and suddenly his back was hit heavily, and the boy who was in extreme pain turned around angrily and looked at the person behind him and shouted: "You guys came just in time, this crazy girl let the dog bite me, beat her hard for me, and then stew her dog to eat!"

The man gently tapped him on the face with the end of his cane: "Open your eyes and take a good look, this head in front of you is the offspring of the ice wolf sent by His Majesty the Emperor from the extreme north, and this wolf meat is different from dog meat, it tastes extremely sour, according to our country's law bottle, the wolf dog is the sacred object of our country, and the wolf dog is not eaten in the territory, if you see it, after the cane beats thirty big sticks, the side will be matched!"

Xie Zuo...... My lord!" The boy covered his shoulders and looked at him in horror, Xie Zuo said softly: "Your Royal Highness, you don't want to openly disobey the law set by your father, do you?"

The sad and indignant boy covered his shoulders, even if he was still young, but he also knew that in this huge palace, the most unprovoked person except for his father, that is, Xie Zuo, he was angry, grabbed the dirt on the ground and threw it at the table slightly, and then limped away.

Ye shook the mud on his body slightly, put down the white wolf angrily, and rushed up angrily, but was stopped by Xie Xuan: "Weiwei, forget it." Let him go, people like him don't live long in the palace. ”

"Brother Xie Zuo......" She squatted on the ground and covered her face and cried, the man squatted with her, stretched out his hand on her head and gently soothed, the movements were very gentle, in the gentle morning light, the man had a clear strand of white hair on his forehead, his complexion was white, and he looked extremely delicate, just like a Confucian in the Hanlin Academy, but the cane he often carried was actually a long sword, which hid a two-foot-long blade, how many times Xie Zuo drew his sword alone to kill the enemy, after his subordinates hurried over, looking at the person who was still twitching and bleeding on the ground, Xie Zuo stood with his cane and treated people with a smile.

As soon as she saw him coming, she sobbed and cried, and he knelt down on one knee and took her in his arms: "It's all right...... It's okay, you see I've brought you a gift. ”

He took out a red envelope from his pocket, wiped his tears slightly, and took the red, the red envelope was heavy, she immediately opened it to see, Xie Zuo's helpless voice came from the top of his head: "Hey, this red envelope is generally not removed in front of people, forget it, you can like it." ”

What fell in the palm of her hand was a piece of seawater jadeite, which was carved into the shape of a wolf's head by the jade worker, with a touch of red in the wolf's eyes, this seawater jadeite is a kind of jadeite, with a faint blue color, and the texture is fine, which is a relatively rare species. And this seawater jadeite is the king of jade, a rare variety of ice jadeite jade, its color and transparency like the blue of the sea, like the blue of the blue, like the luxury of the magnificent aquamarine, making people feel that there is a spiritual treasure, if it is sold in the city, I am afraid that it is difficult to go down with ten thousand taels of gold, Xie Zuo actually gave this jade as a gift to her.

She put it in her hand with joy on her face, and smiled sweetly: "Brother Xie Zuo, you are the best." ”