The greenery on the path in the courtyard was thickening, and the dust between the leaves was washed away by the rain, and Ah Yu had just come down from the carriage with a cloak on her body. Rain is falling inside and outside the city of Kyoto, and the rain curtain intertwined with fine rain threads gives people the illusion of being in a water town south of the Yangtze River in a trance.

The rain in Kyoto is always very powerful, and it is rarely as soft as this.

Qingye raised the oil-paper umbrella in his hand, carefully covering the rain for Ah Yu, the door of the Wen Mansion had already been opened, and Mama Chang was waiting for them at the door.

Behind them were also a group of guards from the Wen Mansion, all of whom were carefully selected by Master Wen San to escort Ah Yu. Now Ah Yu is fifteen years old, and when other girls reach this age, most of the elders in the family have already prepared things for them to look at, but Mrs. Wen still thinks that Ah Yu is young, so she only pushes aside the things she looks at, and is full of persuasion Ah Yu to withdraw from the White Horse Academy as soon as possible.

Hakuba Shoin is the only academy in Kyoto that teaches women, but because women rarely enter the court as officials, it has unknowingly formed a practice in the academy.

If a girl who has reached the age of 16 or has reached the age of sixteen, whether or not she has already married a woman, she will withdraw from the college after completing her studies that year.

Ah Shen is also aware of this practice.

The death of her brother was when she was sixteen years old, and after she helped her brother avoid the death disaster, she could naturally leave the academy.

It also saves the third lady Wen from always thinking about this matter.

Ah Yu only felt that time passed very slowly, and he wanted to grow up faster, so he could do everything he wanted to do as soon as possible.

Since that day in the small bamboo building suddenly realized, she realized that time can pass so quickly, three years of time is fleeting, she doesn't have time to feel it, she is already fifteen years old.

Only then did she return to the courtyard, Qingrui stepped forward to untie the cloak on Ah Yu's body, turned around and asked Xiao Yahuan to bring a cup of hot tea, and handed it to Ah Yu: "Girl, you take a sip of tea to warm up your body." She said to Ah Yu, "The spring cold has not passed, and this year's spring rain has been falling non-stop, and Mrs. also said that the girl should continue to recuperate at home, and some inconsequential invitations can be directly refused." ”

"Although the second lady of the Xia family has some friendship with the girl, that was a few years ago. She returned to Beijing from the border pass, and the girl didn't have to pick her up, just because she wanted to catch up with the old days, and she could also find a good day on a sunny day, so why run around in the rain......"

A person like Qingrui who has served Ah Yu for many years will always have a little controversy about Ah Yu going out on a rainy day.

They are afraid that they will not forget the time when Ah Yu was sick because of a rain, and he did not get better for several months.

Ah Mo rubbed the teacup in his hand, as if he didn't notice what she was talking about.

Qingrui thought that Ah Yu would say something, but she didn't hear her reply. She is a first-class maid beside Ah Yu, and it seems that when Ah Yu goes out, this kind of thing is not something she can evaluate at will, that is, Ah Yu's attitude towards them has been too gentle in recent years, giving them the confidence to speak.

Mama Chang glanced at her lightly and did not speak.

Just one glance made Qingrui couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

She remembered that Mama Chang paid the most attention to the dignity and inferiority of her status, so that Mama Chang heard her words, and left in front of the girl later, she would definitely be disciplined.

Qingrui hurriedly said again: "The girl went out early in the morning, and she didn't even have time to use breakfast, and it was already half of the afternoon at this time, and I don't know if the girl has eaten outside, so she needs to let the kitchen bring food." ”

Ah Yu pursed her lips and smiled: "Wenwen and I are also friends, since she wrote a letter to say the return date, I must be going to meet her...... What's more, she returned to Beijing this time to marry in the ancestral house in Beijing, I heard that her future husband's family is at the border pass, from Kyoto to the border pass, it will take several months along the way, but their wedding date is also set in the autumn of this year, the time is very tight, she has to be busy with a lot of things after returning to Beijing, I am afraid there is no opportunity to catch up with me. ”

Xia Yiwen had to go to the border because of the events at the poetry meeting that year, and she could have returned to Kyoto after the rumors in Kyoto dissipated. After all, most people are forgetful, and not many people will deliberately deal with her as a weak woman.

However, after a few years at the border, she somehow changed her mind, and the sisters in Kyoto didn't want to contact each other anymore, so they still kept a correspondence with Ah Yu. If it weren't for the fact that she was going to marry from her ancestral home, I'm afraid she wouldn't even be able to return to Kyoto.

Ah Yu has nothing to say about this.

However, on the way back, she saw Mrs. Duan, who didn't look very good...... Although Mrs. Duan and her are close relatives, in fact, they have become a nominal existence in the past few years, but they are not as close as they were when they were children. Ah Yu used to like Mrs. Duan with Buddha incense on her body, but after knowing that she ignored Wen Rusu, her previous admiration gradually faded.

She lowered her head and took a sip of tea, her mind fluctuated, and she couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.

In the past three years, a lot of things have happened, and Ah Yu has a little more understanding of her own eyes.

Not all people will show death in Ah Yu's eyes, all she can see are those who died before Wen Ru, such as her father and brother. But if it was Wen Ning and others, she wouldn't find anything abnormal when she first saw it, and when she remembered it again, her mind was blurry, and she couldn't remember the face at all.

It stands to reason that when Wen Ru died, Mrs. Duan should still be reciting scriptures in her small Buddha hall.

However, Ah Yu saw Mrs. Duan's death on the road today, with blue and purple marks between her neck, and when she opened her mouth to speak, her tongue protruded, and she looked like she had hanged herself, which was very different from the direction in Wen Ru's memory.

Who is the person who made the mistake?

Is it because Wen Ru doesn't know the specific truth, or does Ah Yu change the trajectory of his fate, so that Mrs. Duan, who shouldn't have died, died early?

Ah Yu turned his head to look at Qingrui, who was still guarding the side, thought for a while, and said: "It will be Mrs. Duan's birthday in a few days, I heard that she will hold a birthday banquet this year is different from previous years, Qingrui, you go to my private library to see, but what can I give to Mrs. Duan...... "If there is none, then I have to prepare a special gift."

After all, Mrs. Duan had already told her about the birthday banquet in person, and she couldn't act like she was nothing.

After Qingrui got down, she took the little maid to the warehouse, the key to the warehouse was kept by her, and the treasures that came and went on weekdays were also registered by her, but the book was not in her hand, and she couldn't think of anything to send for a while.

The Duan family is also well-known in Kyoto, especially in recent years, when Master Duan served in the court, he has been in the emperor's heart and has won many awards.

As the saying goes, a husband is honored and a wife is expensive.

Master Duan's reputation outside has risen, and his wife, Mrs. Duan, is naturally a little more decent in front of all ladies. Her birthday banquet, but anyone who posted in person, there is no one who is not present.

Like Ah Yu, not only sent someone to deliver the post, but also said it in person, if she excuses not going, it will be a big problem!

On the day I went to Duanfu, because a few of the horses driving the carriage were sick, there were only five carriages used to go out. Old lady Wen and their men took up three, and those who were assigned to the women's side were only two. On the day of Mrs. Duan's birthday, it was drizzling in the sky, and even if they wanted to take a sedan chair to go over, the heavens would not be beautiful, so they could only make do with it in two carriages.

Fortunately, the carriage of the carriage is still very large, and the family of the four-and-a-half-year-old girl is in one car, and it is still passable.

The people also have their carriages, but the horses that drive them are more ordinary, at least not so good-looking.

The carriage rushed towards Duanfu, and it also passed by other carriages on the way.

There were already people waiting there with umbrellas at the gate of the Duan Mansion, and the maid who greeted the guests took the Wen family's female dependents to the small courtyard on the right, and the small courtyard on the right was close to the Duan family before they would rest here.

But Ah Yu is different.

As early as when she didn't form a relationship with Mrs. Duan, she had her own courtyard in Duan's mansion, and all the decorations in the courtyard were according to her preferences. It stands to reason that the maid who greeted the guest should have taken her to her small courtyard, just like before, even if she didn't bring Ah Yu to the previous courtyard, she should have asked Ah Yu in advance.

But in fact, no one came to ask her.

Although in the past three years, Ah Yu has only been a guest at Duan's Mansion a handful of times, every time he comes to Duan's Mansion, he only goes to Mrs. Duan's courtyard to ask for peace, and often he doesn't even see Mrs. Duan's face, so he is directly served tea and sent away. But no matter what, she and Mrs. Duan have already formed a relationship, and they can be regarded as girls in Duan's mansion.

Ah Yu watched the maid who greeted the guests arrange them in the small courtyard, and then came to Xi Rou, as if she was planning to take her to another place.

She rubbed the corners of her aching forehead, if it was someone from the Wen Mansion who did something like today, she would have to follow whatever she said.

However, the subject was changed to Mrs. Duan, and she didn't have the desire to compete for favor.

Mrs. Wen San glanced at Xi Rou, who was leaving with the maid, thought for a moment, and said to Ah Yu: "There will be a lot of people at the birthday banquet later, and you can't always rely on your godmother in front of you, so it's better to take advantage of this gap to talk to your godmother first." ”

Ah Yu also felt that there were too many people at the birthday banquet, which would make her a little uncomfortable.

And she also wanted to take a closer look at Mrs. Duan's appearance, maybe if she took a closer look, she might be able to think of something again.

Qingrui found a little maid from Duan's Mansion to lead the way in front, and followed Ah Yu to find Mrs. Duan.

The girl had to be waited for at all times, not to mention that it was still raining, so of course she had to hold an umbrella for the girl.

Every inch of land in Kyoto is expensive, and the Duan family's house was only purchased by Master Duan later, and it is not particularly large, at least compared to the Wen Mansion, it is much smaller. The little maid took them without taking two steps, and caught up with Xi Rou, who took the first step, but Xi Rou walked to the road on the left, and the little maid took Ah Yu and they walked to the right.

Qingrui measured Ah Yu's face, and felt that Ah Yu should also be curious about Xi Rou's whereabouts, so she inquired with the little maid: "Let's go to Mrs. Duan's yard, right?" It's just that I vaguely remember that I used to walk the left road, but now I walked to the right? "Whether she walked on the left or the right in the past, she just said it casually.

The little maid who led the way was only seven or eight years old, and she looked childish. She listened to Qingrui's question, and replied a little unconvinced: "Then you must have made a mistake yourself!" ”

"When I started on an errand, Mama had already explained to us every road in the house, the one on the left just now was going to the young master's courtyard, and the road we took on the right was going to the lady's courtyard."

Qingrui smiled, didn't care about the little girl's tone, and immediately said, "I haven't been to Duanfu for a long time, so it should be that I remembered it wrong." ”

The little maid shook her head and sighed, as if she wanted to say something, but when she looked up, Mrs. Duan's yard had arrived, so she didn't say anything.

Ah Yu was a little stunned at this time, she looked at the remote courtyard in front of her, and asked the little maid: "When I came to Duanfu last time, Madame didn't still live in the main courtyard, why did she change to such a remote place now?" ”

Coincidentally, the courtyard where Mrs. Duan lives now happens to be Wen Ru's residence in the Duan Mansion.

The little girl took a few steps back in fear, and the oil-paper umbrella in her hand also fell to the ground because of panic, and she didn't dare to pick it up, so she stood stupidly in the rain.

"Husband...... Mrs. She...... She's still living in the main courtyard, only, it's just that there's something going on in the courtyard here......"

The reason she said was full of flaws, and people knew that it was made up as soon as they heard it.

Ah Yu stared at her for a long time, and couldn't bear to embarrass a child anymore, so he said, "Pick up the umbrella!" ”

"Let you lead the way, you have brought us to the place, you can go down."

Qingye looked at Qingrui, who was still holding an umbrella, and went forward to pick up the oil-paper umbrella for the little girl, and said to her: "Don't be in a hurry to do things when you go back, change into a set of clean clothes first, and save yourself from getting sick when the time comes......"

The maid behind her was talking about something, Ah Yu didn't pay too much attention, she looked at the locked courtyard door in front of her, paused for a moment, and asked the maid next to her to knock on the door.

After a few bangs, there was silence inside the door, as if no one was living there.

Ah Yu turned his head and looked at the little maid who led the way just now, and was about to ask her again, but when he turned around, there was no one, so he couldn't help asking, "The little maid just now is gone?" ”

Aoba nodded: "When the girl asked someone to knock on the door, she ran away in a puff of smoke, and even the oil-paper umbrella was dropped." As she spoke, she shook the oil-paper umbrella in her hand, thinking of the little girl who ran away in the rain, feeling a little incredible.

Whose little maid would be so reckless, don't you worry about being fined for your monthly money!

Ah Yu pursed her lower lip, feeling that something was wrong, but after thinking about it carefully, she didn't find anything wrong, so she put down the inexplicable feeling in her heart for the time being, and asked people to come forward and call the door.

It was probably that the movement outside the door was a little loud, and finally disturbed the people inside the door, and they waited for a while, and finally waited for a crack in the courtyard door to open.

Someone was lying on the crack of the door and looking out, and the dark eyes suddenly appeared in the crack of the door, which startled the girl who was standing in front of the door and shouted, and almost didn't fall.

"What do you want to do here?" The voice of the person inside was like a broken gong, very ugly, "Our lady is not dead, it is not your turn to show off your little hooves here!" ”

She seems to be treating them as someone else.

And that group of people still have a grudge against Mrs. Duan.

Aoba stepped forward unconvinced: "How can you talk!" ”

"Do you know who our girl is? Our girl is Mrs. Duan's daughter, and a guy like you dares to be rude to her master! ”

Qingrui originally wanted to stop Aoba, but the person inside the door spoke really ugly, so she held the umbrella for Ah Yu wholeheartedly, and didn't care about Aoba, who was about to scold people in front of her.

Madame's daughter-in-law?

The people inside the door repeated Aoba's words suspiciously, as if they were a little incredulous.

She saw Ah Yu in the middle of the crowd through the crack in the door, and her eyes widened.

Just when Aoba thought she would open the courtyard door directly, the other party slammed the door shut, and in a hurry, she also heard the sound of the bolt being plugged in, giving people a very unfriendly feeling.

Aoba couldn't help but look back at Ah Yu, she thought Ah Yu would be angry: "The people of the Duan Mansion are really not very good, the girl should not be angry with them......"

Ah Yu took two steps forward, his expression quite solemn.

Fang Cai's gong-like voice was very recognizable, and there was no similar sound in Ah Yu's memory, but Wen Ru had heard it.

It was her first New Year's when she married into Duanfu.

Because before marriage, he had promised Duan Yuzhi that he would keep filial piety for his parents for three years, so Wen Rugu did not go out of his yard in the New Year, although the lights outside the house were colorful, and there was a red light everywhere, but Wen Ruzhi's yard was still full of plain colors, and she also had some vegetarian dishes when she ate on weekdays.

On the night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Wen Ru gave the maids in the yard a holiday, and sat on a small bench in the yard looking at the moon, wiping tears while watching, missing his parents and brothers who he could never see again.

That's when the broken gong voice appeared.

Her voice is not good, and her appearance is not satisfactory, which makes it difficult to explain.

She also took out the small leaf rosewood Buddha beads that Mrs. Duan had been wearing on her wrist, saying that Mrs. Duan had asked her to give them to Wen Rugu.

It's just that she stuffed the small leaf red sandalwood Buddha beads into Wen Rugu's arms, and there was a sound of footsteps outside, and the broken gong throat was so frightened that she immediately ran over the wall, not even leaving a word.

The person who came was Duan Yuzhi.

I don't know for what reason, Wen Ru didn't tell others about the visit of the broken gong, and even the small leaf red sandalwood Buddha bead, she carefully put it away and didn't let others find out. It's just that she later asked people to find the broken gong's voice, but she heard that there was never such a person in the Duan Mansion.

is obviously such a person with such distinct characteristics, but no one in the house has an impression of her, as if that person is just her imagination.

During Ah Yu's recollection, the broken gong voice had already rushed to the room.

"Why is Lan Yin in such a hurry, has the banquet already started?" Mrs. Duan put down the scriptures in her hand, looked back at the broken gong's throat, her eyes stopped on the clothes of the broken gong's throat, and couldn't help frowning, "It's still raining outside, why don't you go out without an umbrella, your clothes are all wet......"

I think that at the beginning, when she was a young girl, she was given the name 'Lanyin' because of a good voice, but unfortunately many changes happened later, and her appearance and voice can never return to the past.

Lan Yin patted his clothes casually: "I have rough skin and thick meat, this little rain is not a problem." Then he said to Mrs. Duan, "Madam, someone knocked on the door just now, I thought it was the master's concubines, but I couldn't help but say, who knew that the person who came said that it was your righteous daughter, do you want to let them in?" ”

Mrs. Duan's still peaceful look on her face suddenly paused: "How did Ah Yu find here?" ”

Except for the people in Duan Fuzhong, how could outsiders know that she, the lady in charge, couldn't even live in the main courtyard! Although Ah Yu is her righteous daughter and nominally a girl of the Duan family, she is actually an outsider.

"The feast will start in a while, you let them go back first, and talk about anything until the feast!" Mrs. Duan casually ordered Lan Yin, but when Lan Yin turned around and was about to go out, she called out to her, "Forget it, since she can find here, you can let her in." ”

She looked down at the scriptures in front of her, she should always do some good deeds, and save herself from wandering in the eighteenth layer of hell after death.

Ah Yin didn't wait outside for long, and after Lan Yin closed the courtyard door, she quickly turned around again, this time her attitude was much better.

However, her voice was there, even if it was an ordinary sentence, coming out of her mouth, people couldn't help frowning, and just wanted her to stop talking.

After Ah Yu met with Mrs. Duan, he first said some words of greeting that no one really cared about, and then chatted for a while before asking about Lan Yin.

"Is she also a maid by Godmother's side? I don't think I've seen her before......"

A person with a character like Lan Yin, if Ah Yu had seen it, he would definitely not remember it.

Mrs. Duan flicked the small leaf red sandalwood Buddha beads in her hand, paused, and said: "Lan Yin broke her throat in order to save me, although I don't care if the voice is good or not, but I always have to pay attention to it in front of ordinary people." Although she won my heart, she rarely appeared in front of people. ”

Is this person really Mrs. Duan's confidant!

Ah Yu thought back to what Lan Yin said in front of Wen Rugu, if those words were really what Mrs. Duan wanted to say to her personally, why didn't she tell her personally?

Obviously, Wen Ru will go to greet her every day, but she has been staying in the small Buddha hall, and no one wants to see her.

Ah Yu suddenly remembered that Wen Ru had complained to Duan Yuzhi about Mrs. Duan's reluctance to see her, how did Duan Yuzhi answer at that time?

He seemed to say.

"She didn't even see me, and naturally she won't see you, there is no need to be unhappy about this kind of trivial matter!"

He seemed to comfort Wen Rugu later, but Ah Yu only remembered the first half of what he said.

Would a mother who loves her children really bear to turn her children away again and again?

No matter how you look at it, it's very problematic!