In the early afternoon, Mo Ge had already taken leave and went back to his grandfather's and grandmother's house for the holidays, leaving only Songzhu to wait for his master's dispatch.

Since he left, Li Mingshuo felt inexplicably uneasy in his heart, always feeling that he still had a mistake that he hadn't made up, but he couldn't think of what this mistake was.

Why do you feel this way? He asked himself.

After saying goodbye to Dong'er, he told Hanhua not to be playful, to wait for the girl to rest early after watching the lights, and also told Xueying to take care of the lanterns in the yard and not to cause fires. After asking for this, he took Songzhu and rode to the princess's mansion.

When the night comes, the girls light the lanterns, the cold flowers help Dong'er out to enjoy the lanterns, a few girls who can write write a bunch of lantern riddles, read them to everyone, and those who guess correctly go to the cold flowers to receive the prize, or a hairpin, or a fan, or a handkerchief, although because of serving the girl, they are not allowed to go out to play, but they are also very happy to play at home.

Dong'er wandered around the yard for a while, tired and wanted to sit and watch the lights.

Hanhua moved the Taishi chair out of the house, put it under the eaves of the porch, helped the master to sit down, and put a thick blanket on her legs to prevent her legs from being cold.

She sat quietly on the Taishi chair under the eaves of the porch, without speaking, like an outsider, watching those innocent little girls play the game of guessing lantern riddles and receiving prizes.

She and their joys and sorrows have never been connected, although they are in the same courtyard, they are like people from two worlds.

The maids were having fun, Liu Qing led a few little girls to walk in happily and greeted loudly, and Dong'er had to get up to greet her.

Liu Qing came to the eaves of the porch, took Dong'er's cold hand, looked at the red lanterns in this courtyard, and said enviously: "Miss Wan, I really didn't expect you to be so festive and lively here, just like marrying a daughter-in-law to do a happy event, I would have come to play with you earlier." ”

Dong'er said politely: "It's not too late for my sister to come over now, I heard the girls say that the second son led his wife and children to the street to watch the lantern festival, why didn't my sister go?" ”

At the mention of this, Liu Qing frowned and sighed: "I was going to go, but when I left, I suddenly felt a stomachache, thinking that it was because of the good things on my body, so I didn't go out with them, and my stomach didn't hurt anymore for a while, and when I heard my sister's laughter here, it was very lively, so I was curious, and I came to take a look, I didn't expect you to be a good place here." There are so many red lanterns hanged, it's like the wedding night of the eldest son. ”

Dong'er thought that Princess Ning'an and Li Mingshuo were an upright couple, and she was just a patch for the two of them, a patch to solve the problem of heirs, and her heart was sad, and she didn't have any joy at all. Endure the displeasure, and say with the friendship of the landlord: "Since my sister likes the atmosphere here, let's stay here and play for a while." ”

Hanhua also brought a stool to Liu Qing, Liu Qing sat for a while, and invited Dong'er: "Miss Wan, when I came, I ordered my cook over there to set up a good banquet, this time it should be ready, I know that the people in the courtyard on the girl's side have not gone out, so according to the number of people in our two courtyards, we are all girls, if the girl can afford to look down on my sister and me, let's take these girls to my side of the house to get together, let's either drink and have fun or gamble, after today." , tomorrow will not be the New Year, everyone hurry up and get together again. ”

The little girls on Dong'er's side heard Liu Qing say that there was a banquet over there, and they could also gamble, so they were all greedy, and they all looked at Dong'er, looking eagerly at the master, hoping that the master would agree to their participation in this party.

Dong'er had already heard Li Mingshuo remind him that no place on Li Chongjun's side was clean, so don't take a step closer to him, so as not to dirty the soles of your shoes.

is the same as looking down on Li Mingshuo, she also looks down on Li Chongjun, she didn't want to go over, but seeing the expectant eyes of these little girls, she couldn't bear to disappoint them, so she said to Liu Qing: "Thank you Sister Liu for your kindness, it's inconvenient for me to drink like this, if I really want to drink, the old lady will be angry, and besides, I go to bed early, you can lead these girls to your side to play, just don't let them get drunk, tell them to come back early, don't disturb your rest." ”

Liu Qing pretended to be very disappointed and pouted, nodded, looked at Hanhua again, and asked, "What about Hanhua girl, can you let her go?" Is she the head of these little sisters? If she doesn't go, others won't dare to go. ”

"Hanhua, do you want to go over and play too?" Dong'er is good. Ask yourself the most intimate girl.

Hanhua lowered her head shyly, wanting to go over to play but was embarrassed to say.

Dong'er saw her like this, so she agreed for her: "You go over, I don't have anything to do here, a dinner is just an hour or so, I will be quiet when you are all gone, just come back as soon as you have had enough." ”

Hanhua was like a pardon, and happily followed Liu Qing.

When she arrived at the house over there, Liu Qing asked the girls in the second room to persuade them to drink, and persuaded the girls in the long room to get drunk early and sleep horizontally.

After the girls left, Dong'er was left alone to sit on the chair under the eaves of the porch in a daze, and after a while, she wrapped her mink cloak in scarlet brocade and slowly paced to the center of the courtyard, surrounded by the red lights.

On the fifteenth day of the first month of this year, the sky was gloomy from the daytime, after everyone left, there were sparse snowflakes floating in the sky, she raised her head to look up at the gray sky without moon and starlight, raised her hand to pick up these lonely snowflakes, and suddenly a very familiar feeling hit, very quiet and beautiful, a feeling that had appeared elsewhere.

She couldn't remember where this feeling appeared for a while, and after thinking for a while, she finally remembered that she was in the street pavilion with Yang Jiqing on Shili Street, that night, the sky was gloomy, the night was boundless, and there was a drizzle outside the pavilion, silent, and the world seemed to have only one pavilion left, and there were only two of them left.

On this night of family reunion, she was alone, guarding a silent celebration, and the world seemed to be the only one in this courtyard full of red lanterns.

Standing in the lantern array for a while, she was frozen, she reluctantly left the courtyard, returned to the room, the charcoal fire in the room was still very strong, the room was warm, she found the letter written by her father from Taizhou Prison, in vain to feel the breath of relatives from her father's letters, and felt the taste of family reunion during the Lantern Festival.

She read word by word, word by word, and finally studied the strength of "father" when he wrote, but when she looked at it, she found that something was wrong: Wan Kezhou generally wrote short strokes when writing, and all the words with apostrophes on this letter were written on the long side, and it was really impossible to detect it if she didn't look carefully.

As the handwriting became more and more rusty, she gradually realized that the paper of this letter was becoming more and more familiar, very similar to the paper used by Yang Jiqing's family to write the letters, thick and firm and textured, and the border lines on the paper were slightly thicker, even and neat everywhere. Li Mingshuo's paper is not as good as Yang Jiqing's paper.

An uneasy inference gradually swelled up in her heart: "They lied to me, they deceived me by pretending to be my father's handwriting, my father may no longer be there, is my father also disappeared from the world......."

Her hand holding the letter began to tremble, and the emotions of anger, fear, anxiety, being deceived and being teased all came to her heart.

There was a knock at the door, she thought it was Hanhua coming back, calmed down, gathered her mind, and let her in.

The door was gently opened, but it was Li Chongjun, who was dressed in a gorgeous dress and as tall as Li Mingshuo, and saw him walk in with a smile and greet Dong'er: "Chongjun has seen my sister-in-law." ”

Dong'er couldn't hide her emotions well, she folded the letter, put it in her sleeve, and asked coldly, "Second master, what are you doing here with me?" You didn't go to see the lights? ”

Li Chongjun replied respectfully: "Chongjun saw that the girls in his sister-in-law's house went to the Liuqing house to drink and play, and I didn't see my sister-in-law alone, I asked her why she left you alone, the little prostitute said that you are noble and noble, she asked you not to move, I scolded her for not being sincere, she was angry and asked me to come and please try, and I hope that my sister-in-law will give Chongjun a face, go to our side and sit down." ”

Dong'er didn't want to show him mercy at all, and said: "Your side is too lively, I don't like it, so I can't avoid it." ”

Li Chongjun said: "Today is the Lantern Festival, it should be lively, my brother also accompanied the princess to go to the Lantern Festival, he kissed me and mine, leaving my sister-in-law alone in the empty room, speaking of which my brother's heart is really ruthless." ”

"I didn't rest well last night, I have to go to bed early tonight, second son, please go back." Dong'er got up to see off the guests.

"Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you? I'll help my sister-in-law pinch it. Li Chongjun said that he was about to come up and do it.

Dong'er flashed and walked to the window, thinking that if she shouted for a while, the sound from the window would be farther away.

Li Chongjun pounced, smiled wryly, and paced to the window, looked down at Dong'er's face, and muttered, "Like, it's so similar." ”

"Like whom? Was that Dongmei before? ”

"Sister-in-law is really smart, a little through, in my opinion, Dongmei is a little like you, her appearance and yours, there is still quite a gap, sister-in-law doesn't know, Dongmei was originally a girl in my yard, I am devoted to her, but she is devoted to my brother, it just so happens that my brother sees that she is also a lover, for my brother, I had to endure the pain of cutting love, and gave her to my brother, who knew that the two of them were too ostentatious and annoyed Cui's mother, so Cui's mother ordered her to go out of the house to marry, I knew that her fate with her brother would be so tragic, and I wouldn't have let her go no matter what........"

"You don't have to tell me so much detail, I'm not interested in knowing the history of her and your brother's affection, not to mention that I'm also tired and impatient to entertain you, second son, please go back."