Chen Ji missed half a day to ask Wanlan to watch this scene, he didn't wear a suit, but wore a royal blue gown of cotton, which made the whole person warm as jade. He arrived at the door of the theater half an hour early, leaned against the wall and waited for a while, and with nothing to do, he simply took out a palm-sized booklet from his cuff, and casually rolled it twice, and then looked twice into the street.

Wanlan stepped on the hour, Chen Ji still remembered the carriage of the Xie family, Lao Pan Fang stopped the car steadily, he took a few steps over, and said hello to Lao Pan.

Wanlan got out of the carriage, saw him, pursed her lips and smiled: "Am I late?" ”

Chen Ji smiled and shook his head, parked his hand on the side of the carriage, and planned to pick her up and get off the car: "No, it's just right." ”

Wanlan looked at his hand, the deeper the smile, and turned her head to look at him: "Isn't this not good, the future ...... Brother-in-law. ”

Chen Ji raised his eyebrows, as if he was surprised that she could say such a thing, and was stunned for a moment before he withdrew his hand: "You said well," he said, revealing a meaningful smile: "Auntie." ”

Wanlan got out of the car by herself and arranged a time for Lao Pan to pick her up, but Chen Ji stretched out his hand in front of her to block it: "I'll send her back after the end, you can run again if you don't work." ”

Wan Lan looked at him in surprise, with a sly smile in her eyes: "Miss Lan is in the mansion." ”

Chen Ji looked down at her, the corners of his lips were slightly hooked upward, and his pupils were extremely deep, as if he couldn't see the bottom well, only a faint smile floated on the surface: "That's just right." ”

Wanlan suddenly felt her heart contract under his gaze, and she trembled, Chen Ji put his hand on her shoulder and pressed it, with a careless indifference in his tone: "Is it cold?" Let's go inside, it's warm inside. ”

Wanlan nodded silently, followed him into the room, Chen Ji booked a box, and the little maid brought tea, he picked it up and passed it on the end of his nose, and put it back on the table: "Change a pot of West Lake Longjing." ”

The little guy looked embarrassed: "Master, our West Lake Longjing here is ......"

Chen Ji didn't wait for him to finish, and took out a silver ticket from his sleeve: "Let's go to another cage of bee candy cake." ”

Wanlan was taken aback, the bee sugar cake was the sweet snack that was always available on the table of Zhenjiang people, and the Longjing before the rain was also the tea she often drank in the old house, today Chen Ji ordered these two things in one go, but did not ask her opinion at all, but seemed to be sure that she would definitely like it.

Chen Ji looked up at her, his eyes were gentle: "Longjing and bee sugar cake are all our southerners' favorite food, I don't know if you have eaten in the capital, I ordered it on my own initiative and changed the taste for you." ”

Wanlan's heart was half lowered, and the other half was still cautiously and cautiously hanging in the air, she quietly looked at Chen Ji's expression, observing every inadvertent small movement of his fingers and lips, but she still maintained a dignified and gentle smile on her face, and even tilted her head slightly, making herself look a little coquettish: "Thank you." ”

Chen Ji smiled back, put his arm on the square table, and leaned over to her: "What do you like to hear?" Kunqu Opera? ”

Wanlan shook her head: "No, Han tune." ”

Chen Ji's smile deepened a little more, and he let out a long "oh" in a long tone: "It's a pity that I sang in Kun dialect today, and I blamed me for being too hard, and I actually gave the wrong courtesy." ”

Wanlan suspected that he had guessed his true identity, and couldn't help but feel a little worried, adhering to the principle of saying more and making more mistakes, he reached out and grabbed a handful of melon seeds on the table, lowered his head slightly, and tried to avoid talking to him by swallowing melon seeds. She didn't wear a dress today, her hair was coiled up, revealing a slender white neck, and a tassel pendant of pearls hung down, shaking behind her ears because of her small movements, and her skin looked more and more delicate.

Wanlan didn't look up, just gave Chen Ji the opportunity to look at her openly, she was a girl with a high door and a deep boudoir, and when men and women were alone with each other, they were not as calm as others, and at this moment they were shrouded in his slightly cool gaze, and they were embarrassed to find a shelter to cover their whole body.

The more she hid, the tighter Chen Ji's gaze followed, until the little guy who delivered the tea opened the curtain and came in, which broke the strange atmosphere between the two of them who did not say a word, but the dark waves were turbulent. Chen Ji finally turned his gaze away from her, he got up and took the teapot and snack plate in the little girl's hand, put them on the table, and then bent down and stretched out his arm to move the teacup in front of Wanlan and poured her a cup of tea.

"I didn't mean anything else to invite you today," he finally spoke, his tone light and casual, as if it were just a casual conversation with an old friend, "You know about my marriage to Miss Lan of your mansion, so I want to ask you about her." ”

"Oh...... Oh," Wanlan put the melon seed skin in the palm of her hand in the box used to hold the peel on the table, and there was a piece of melon seed skin stuck to the palm of her hand by the beads of sweat in her palm, and Wanlan flicked it with her fingers, but she couldn't get it off.

"What are you nervous about?" Chen Ji laughed lightly, reached over, took off the melon seed skin in her palm, and threw it into the box: "While the stage has not started singing, tell me, what does Miss Lan like to do on weekdays?" ”

Wanlan opened her mouth, exhaled a breath, took a deep breath, used all her strength to control her facial expression, raised her head and smiled at him: "This question is really difficult to answer. ”

"Don't you get along day and night?" Chen Ji said: "How can it be difficult to answer. ”

"The closer you are, the more you can't answer your usual preferences," Wanlan replied calmly: "Mr. Yuji and Mr. Baili have been friends for many years, what do you know what he likes?" ”

Chen Ji smiled calmly and replied clearly: "He is a literati, but he is keen on military affairs, in fact, not only military, such as education and industry, are all the things he cares about, but as a martial artist, he talks about martial arts but does not use martial arts." In his spare time, he likes to read some legendary novels, and he always looks enthusiastic, so he has a good brain, so he doesn't cause trouble. ”

He paused, took a sip of tea from the teacup, and looked up at her with a smile: "How is it, do you understand?" ”

Wanlan was speechless, and then took a sip of tea, staring at the tassel of the tablecloth, pretending to be pensive: "Okay, since you asked, I will talk to you." ”

She pursed her lips, stuck out her tongue and licked it again, and said slowly, "She...... I don't like to do anything on weekdays, it's just to read some idle books and think about it again. ”

"What are you thinking about?" Chen Ji asked, and joked with her again: "It's not like a down-and-out scholar who meets Miss Qianjin by chance, right?" ”

"That's not it," Wanlan laughed with him, and suddenly had an extremely bold idea in her heart, plucked up the courage to raise her head, and looked at Chen Ji: "She told me something, she wants to find something to do for her brother." ”

Chen Ji raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised: "Looking for something to do for her brother?" ”

"Yes, Ning Yin is about to go abroad to study, which is very good, but Chongrong is still studying the sage book in Zhenjiang," Wanlan said: "In today's troubled times, the most worthless thing is probably the sage book." ”

Chongrong is the word of Xie Daozhong's eldest son Xie Huai'an, the two male names and words of the Xie family's generation are cleverly given, the word Huai Zi, the name of the person is re-honored, and the word of the name Chang is Ningyin, the word of the former echoes the name of the latter, and the word of the latter echoes the name of the former. Xie Daozhong has always emphasized moderation, but he didn't care to vent his ambition on his son's name.

Chen Ji chewed the names and words of these two people separately in his heart, and the smile was a little more sincere, and he nodded thoughtfully: "This sentence is not bad, then...... What kind of things does Miss Lan want to do for Chongrong? ”

Wanlan tilted her head to look at him again, bit her lower lip, and laughed a little, before she said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "She said that what Mr. Yuji is doing is very good." ”

"Really? That's really a coincidence," Chen Ji laughed and said: "It is said that this arranged marriage is unfortunate, today it seems that Chen is a lucky person in misfortune, and he actually picked up such a like-minded unmarried lady for nothing, it seems that it is indeed necessary to get married as soon as possible, so as not to have a long night and many dreams, such a good wonderful person, and then be snatched away by others." ”

When he said this, his voice was suddenly hoarse, and his tone was ambiguous, listening to his ears, as if there were thousands of feathers swept in his ear canal, Wanlan didn't hold back, and trembled again, subconsciously raised his hand to hold the square table, embarrassed and didn't even know where to put his eyes, let alone dare to look at him again, so he had to pretend to unintentionally stretch out his head to the stage: "Why hasn't it started yet?" Which famous actor is on stage today? ”

"It's Wei Xuansheng," Chen Ji said, pushing the stack of bee sugar cakes on the table towards her: "Come, try our southern dim sum, this thing is only available in Yangzhou, and you can't eat it anywhere else." ”

Wanlan's heart suddenly burst into alarm, this sentence was clearly a temptation, Chen Ji did not guess her true identity, maybe he just had some suspicions. She settled down and reached out to take a piece of bee sugar cake: "It turned out to be a Yangzhou specialty, I said why I have never heard of it." ”

Chen Ji looked surprised: "Huh? Didn't Miss Lan talk to you? ”

Wanlan almost choked to death by biting a small bite of cake in her mouth: "She doesn't say much about the old mansion, besides, didn't you say that this thing can only be eaten in Yangzhou?" ”

Chen Jizuo suddenly realized, let out a long "oh", and suddenly asked, "Since she didn't say much, how did Miss Pingqing know that she planned to find something to do for Chongrong?" ”

Wanlan: "......"

===========================================================================

Jixiang Theater: Founded in 1906 by Liu Xiezhi, the chief steward of the Grand Princess Mansion of the Inner Court at the end of Guangxu, it is located in the northwest entrance of Jinyu Hutong in Dongcheng District, at the north end of Dong'an Market, and is one of the famous theaters in Beijing. Tan Xinpei, Yang Xiaolou and other famous artists have appeared here. The "Wei Feisheng" mentioned in this article is a fictional character.

Han tune: formerly known as Chu tune, Han tune (Chu dialect, Chu song), named Han opera during the Republic of China, commonly known as "Erhuang".