When Juemin and Juehui came out of Zhang's house, it was already past eleven o'clock, and the street was still very lively. They walked in the middle of the street, stepping on the stone road, looking at the brightly lit shops and taverns on both sides, and felt much more relaxed in their hearts, and what had just happened seemed to be just a sad dream.

On the way they didn't talk, but strode silently, trying to get home as soon as possible.

They were not far from home, and had just walked through the intersection when a dark shadow approached them. The man walked slowly, burying his head in his head, without looking at them.

"Isn't this a sword cloud?" Juehui said to Juemin in surprise. Jue Hui turned around and shouted, "Jian Yun!" ”

The man stopped, looked up, and when he saw that it was them, he walked over and said in surprise, "Is it you?" ”

They stood face to face in the middle of the street, and Juehui asked Jian Yun, "Where are you going?" ”

Jian Yun smiled incomprehensibly, and then said, "I'm just taking a walk on the street. It's very stuffy at home alone, so go out for a walk. Thinking of your 'resignation' in the house, I am afraid that I will ......" He suddenly shut up before he finished speaking.

At such a festive season, such words are unusual. But Brother Juemin understood. In his uncle's scattered home, when could he not feel lonely?

Jue Hui pulled Jian Yun's sleeve and said, "Why don't you come to our house?" You go with us all the way now. You can stay in our house for a few days. Sister Qin will also come to live the day after tomorrow. ”

When Jian Yun heard Qin's name, a smile appeared on his slender face, and he promised to say "okay" and followed them.

The three young men walked into the quiet street, stepped over the wreckage of firecrackers, and entered the high mansion with a pair of stone lions and a pair of red paper lanterns burning under the eaves.

The doors of the porter were completely open, and in the dim light, servants and palanquin bearers gathered around a table, shouting and rolling dice. Yuan Cheng stood outside the door, leisurely smoking a bag of leaf cigarettes, and when he saw them come in, he greeted them with laughter: "Second young master, third young master, you are back." ”

Brother Kyaw Min walked inside. The main entrance of the hall was wide open, and in the bright light, many people gathered around a table and threw dice, men and women. They saw that their uncle's generation was almost all in the hall. The most energetic ones were the fifth uncle Keding and the fourth aunt Wang.

They accompanied Jian Yun towards the hall. The sound of the pounding of the coins and the rolling of the dice in the bowl reached their ears in an incongruous way, mixed with the laughter and cries of the crowd.

Before they had reached the stone steps in front of the hall, they saw Cutin running out of the hall laughing and shouting. When Keding saw Jianyun, he stood up and said hello, and asked two or three words. Jian Yun also greeted him, and then he went in again and saluted everyone. Keding invited Jian Yun to participate in gambling, and Jian Yun said a few words and joined. The dice continued to ring, and the money continued to fly around. Juemin had already gone back to the house. Jue Hui wanted to hold Jian Yun and tell him not to join. However, he saw that Jian Yun was willing, and that he was inconvenient to speak much in front of many elders, so he withdrew from the hall, feeling very unhappy, thinking, "I have pulled a corner for you." ”

Jue Hui walked under Juexin's window and heard the sound of mahjong tiles in the house, so he turned around and walked into Juexin's room from the aisle to watch Rui Jue play cards, and after a while he returned to his room.

Juemin was leaning over the square table to write, and when he saw him come in, he quickly put down his pen, closed the diary, turned around and looked at him and smiled.

"Is there any secret that you can't show to anyone?" Jue Hui said mockingly, took an English book from the table, and read it aloud while lying on the bed with it.

"What else do you read on Chinese New Year's Eve?" It's annoying! Jue Hui's voice disturbed Juemin's heart, preventing him from writing calmly, he complained.

"Okay, let you write it alone!" Jue Hui got up from the bed, put the book on the table, and walked out angrily.

He stepped out of the threshold, and the sound of dice, money, and laughter in the hall blew like the wind in his face. He stood on the stone steps and watched people move, laugh, and scream, as if they were acting.

He suddenly felt lonely. It all seemed to be far away from him. He was surrounded by cold air and oppressed by an inexplicable melancholy. No one sympathized with him and cared for him. He seemed to be completely isolated in this strange environment. He became more and more ignorant of this strange environment. It was a mystery that his young heart could not solve. Many times the sight of Chinese New Year's Eve appeared in his heart. In those times, he laughed merrily, he forgot everything to laugh, and he played cards with his brothers and sisters, rolling dice, or playing other games. He didn't feel lonely. But now he has changed. He stood alone in the dark and watched others laugh and have fun, as if he were living in another world.

"Has the people changed, or has the environment changed?" He asked himself this, and he could not answer it explicitly. However, he felt that he and this big family were walking towards two opposite roads day by day, and at the same time, Huang Ma's words of "clear water and muddy water" pierced his heart.

To calm his troubled mind, he descended the stone steps and walked along the unobstructed paths.

He went into the aisle again and turned inside. The sound of talking and laughing gradually moved away from him. He stopped, and suddenly realized that he was under Shuhua's window, and the light shining opposite was the house of the fourth uncle, with a patio in the middle, and there was a wisteria trellis in the courtyard. He sat down in the chair under the window and stared blankly at the diagonal corner of the kitchen. There were a couple of maids walking around at the kitchen door.

Someone in Shuhua's room was talking, and the voice was low, but he could tell it was a familiar voice.

"I heard that we want to pick one of the two of us,......" The one who spoke was Wan'er, the maidservant of the third room, a girl with a long face and a delicate birth, she was a year older than Mingfeng, and she spoke faster.

This sentence came very suddenly, and it caught Juehui's attention. As if he knew something unusual was behind him, he held his breath and listened quietly.

"Needless to say, I'll pick you, you're older than me," Mingfeng said, and couldn't help but sneer.

"I'm talking to you seriously, you laugh at me, you really have no conscience!" Wan'er said angrily.

"What a blessing, I give you good news, do you still blame me for having no conscience?" Ming Feng still said with a smile.

"Who is happy to be a little wife to others!" Wan'er was even angrier, her voice full of distress.

"It's not bad to be a little wife, you see the old lady's Aunt Chen is too ......," Mingfeng said again.

"Okay, you're hard-mouthed! You see, which one will be picked in the future. It's either me or you, you may not be able to run away," Wan'er was so anxious that she had no choice, so she sneered angrily.

Jue Hui almost screamed, but he hurriedly held back and listened more attentively, wanting to hear how Ming Feng answered.

Mingfeng was silent, she seemed to think that this matter was not fun. She was silent, and after a while the pendulum of the wall clock in the room slowly and regularly swayed. Juehui couldn't bear it anymore, but he didn't want to go away.

"If you really pick me, what will I do?" Ming Feng said desperately in the room.

"Then we have to go, only blame our bad lives," Wan'er said distressedly.

"No, no. I can't go. I can't go! I'd rather die than be that old man's wife! She argued bitterly, as if it were about to become a reality. Her voice peeked out the window, sad and trembling.

"It doesn't matter, we can still work out a solution, and then we can ask our wife for help. In fact, this kind of statement is not necessarily true. Maybe people deliberately made it up to scare us," Wan'er heard Mingfeng's words, and her anger calmed down, so she comforted her in a low voice, and at the same time seemed to be thinking about her fate.

Jue Hui still sat in the chair under the window, not moving, he forgot that it was early or late at night, and he forgot that it was Chinese New Year's Eve, and two or three maids in the kitchen were laughing with the cook. Under the window of the fourth uncle's house opposite, a maid passed by with dishes from time to time. They walked in a hurry, not looking at him. The laughter and laughter in the kitchen came rudely.

"I look like you've had someone on your mind lately, don't you?" Wan'er asked Ming Feng in a lower voice, her voice was very gentle, slower than her usual speech.

Ming Feng didn't answer. Wan'er asked in a more euphemistic whisper: "Do you have someone in your heart?" I think you've been acting a little strangely lately. Why didn't you tell me the truth? I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm like your sister, what can't you say to me? ”

Mingfeng said a word in Wan'er's ear half-shyly. Jue Hui listened attentively, but she couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Which one? Tell me! Wan'er asked in a low voice with a smile. Juehui was taken aback. He waited anxiously for Ming Feng's answer.

"I won't tell you," it was Mingfeng's slightly trembling voice.

"Second Master Gao?" Wan'er asked the bottom of the question. Jue Hui knew that she was referring to Gao Zhong, the young servant of the fifth room, so she sighed, and the stone in her heart was removed.

"He? Bah! Which one loves him? He seems to have taken a fancy to you, you don't admit it, and you have to rely on others! Ming Feng sneered.

"People are kind enough to ask you, but you say such things! How can this really be true! "Wan'er doesn't follow the way." Can you say that Gao Zhong didn't take a fancy to you? ”

"Good sister, don't quarrel. Let's get down to business," Mingfeng smiled and begged for mercy. Then she lowered her voice and said:

"You won't know, I won't tell. I'm the only one who knows about him. At the mention of the word "he", she seemed to find the strength to shelter her, she was no longer afraid, and her words turned into whispers of happiness. She found the joy of selflessness in pure love.

The conversation between the two of them grew quieter and quieter, and then became a whisper, sometimes mixed with laughter. Jue Hui listened attentively outside, but he couldn't listen completely, but he knew that it was Wan'er who was telling her heart. They were talking, and someone in the front room was shouting, "Wan'er! It was the voice of the maid of the third room, Sister-in-law Wang. Wan'er didn't agree, and let her call outside for a while, and she only cared about talking to Mingfeng. Then the cry came near, as if the caller was about to enter the room. Wan'er stopped, stood up, and complained: "I always shout and shout all day, and I don't even have free time for the New Year's Festival." With that, she went outside.

Mingfeng was left alone in the house. She sat silently, without a sound.

Jue Hui stood up, knelt in the chair, pressed her face against the paper window, gently broke a piece of the window paper, and peeked inside. He saw Ming Feng sitting on the rattan chair in front of the desk, his elbows pressed against the table, his hands supporting his cheeks, and the little finger of his right hand in his mouth. She stared blankly at the tin lamp with cypress branches and longevity fruit wrapped around the lamp plate.

"I don't know what the future holds?" She suddenly sighed, said this, and buried her head down. Lean over the table.

Jue Hui forgot to put her finger on the small glass in the middle of the window and tapped it lightly. There was no response. He knocked twice more and whispered, "Mingfeng, Mingfeng." ”

Ming Feng raised her head in the room and looked around in surprise, she couldn't see anything, so she sighed and said, "I just fell asleep and dreamed." It was as if someone was shouting at me. So she lazily propped herself up on the table, letting the light cast the shadow of her precocious maiden on the tent.

Jue Hui knocked more urgently outside, and he called several times in succession.

Ming Feng only noticed where the sound came from. She hurriedly walked over to the chair by the window, knelt on top of it, leaned half against the table, and asked, "Which one?" ”

"It's me," Juehui replied, her voice still low, "Lift the curtains, I have something to ask you." ”

"Is that you? Third Young Master! Ming Feng was surprised to recognize what kind of voice it was. She rolled up the paper curtain with the flowers, and when she saw Jue Hui's face with a nervous expression pressed against the glass, she asked in surprise, "What's the matter?" ”

"I heard what you just said...... "Jue Hui was interrupted by her before she could finish her sentence. She changed her face and said hurriedly, "Did you hear our words?" We're talking and playing. ”

"Talking about fun? Don't lie to me. What if one day someone really chooses you? Juehui said excitedly.

Ming Feng looked at him stupidly, didn't speak for a long time, and suddenly tears flowed from her eyes, she didn't touch them, but she turned her heart sideways and replied very resolutely: "I won't go!" I'm not going to talk to anyone. I bet on you! ”

He hurriedly put his hand on the glass, making a gesture of covering her mouth, and said, "I believe in you, I don't want you to curse." ”

Suddenly, as if she had woken up from a dream, she knocked on the glass inside, and begged urgently: "Third Young Master, please leave quickly, it's not good for you to be seen here." ”

"Tell me what the hell is going on. You said I'd go," he said stubbornly.

"Okay, I said. I said, you go, my good young master," she said anxiously and alarmedly.

Jue Hui nodded outside.

"It was said that Mrs. Feng wanted to please Mrs. Feng, and Mrs. Feng also came to our mansion, she said, the girls in our mansion are all good-looking, and asked the old lady for one. I heard that the old lady wanted to pick one of the girls in the big room and the third room and send it to it. Wan'er heard a little wind from the third wife, so she came to tell me. If you ask us what we think, you have heard it just now. …… Good young master, please leave quickly, so as not to be seen. Speaking of this, she suddenly lowered the curtains, and no matter how Juehui knocked on the glass outside to call her, she refused to roll up the paper curtains.

Juehui had no choice, so she got out of her chair and stood on the steps for a while. He thought about many things, and looked at the kitchen, but he didn't see anything.

At this time in the room, Mingfeng was still kneeling on the chair, she didn't hear any sound, thinking that Juehui had gone, so she secretly rolled up half of the paper curtains. When she saw him still standing there, she was so moved that she quickly lowered the paper curtain and rubbed her eyes with her hands.