The early night in April, the light clouds and the moon.

The Su Xin Nunnery shrouded in the thin moonlight is just like a green coat that has closed the curtain, sprinkling a bit of poignancy in the silence.

This is the family temple of the Zhiyong Mansion, which is dedicated to the first four o'clock in the house to pay tribute to the Buddha and the family, so it is not known for its grandeur and solemnity.

It covers an area of only a dozen acres, in addition to the three main halls, there are only two inverted seats where the old cangtou lives at the mountain gate, and a slippery house in the backyard - in the middle is a nunnery, two Zen courtyards in the east and west.

At this time, there were still lights in the East Zen Temple, and the sound of wooden fish spread far in the quiet night, even drowning out the footsteps that came in a hurry.

The person who walked in was thin, dressed in a gray monk's robe, and even her shadow seemed faint, and she stood there motionless, like a broken cobweb hanging on the wall.

It wasn't until the sound of the wooden fish stopped that the man took a few steps forward and pressed his throat to ask, "Mrs. Tai, is there still that one in the West Courtyard?" ”

Mrs. Tai is the one who knocks on the wooden fish, and she is also dressed in monk's clothes, but she has not shaved her face.

She got up from the futon, tied the string of Canaanite beads in her hand to the button in the front placket, and without saying a word, walked straight to the courtyard.

The thin nun followed carefully behind her, she was not young, and her shoulders were obviously a little hunched.

Mrs. Tai grabbed a handful of bait and threw it into the release pond in front of her, and the calm water exploded at once, and thousands of loaches competed for the bait that fell into the water, stirring up all the water.

People in the capital especially like to buy loaches for release, so all the loaches in this pond are raised.

It wasn't until the water surface was quiet again that Mrs. Tai slowly spoke: "What kind of wind and waves can a small loach rise?" Is it also worth taking the risk for her at the feet of the Son of Heaven? Mingxin, are you hairless or brainless? ”

Mrs. Tai's tone was cold, like a sickle cutting through the green barley, and the stubble was neatly broken.

This nun named Mingxin immediately lowered her head and was silent, not daring to make another rebuttal.

At this time, the lights of the West Zen Temple had all been turned off, but there were still people who had not slept.

The dim moonlight was enough for those who were accustomed to the darkness to see the inside of the room, and at the head of an old bamboo bed sat a girl, leaning sideways against the old incense table.

On the incense table are a brass incense burner and two white columbariums, one larger and one smaller.

The girl stroked the two urns, and at the end she gently pressed her cheeks up, not moving for a long time, and the whole person seemed to be crazy.

She is the "loach" that Mrs. Tai just said - Wei Yining, the fifth lady of the Zhiyong Mansion.

Eight years ago, her father Wei Zongzhao forced Gong E to death because of molestation, and it was an extraordinary period when the country and the family were filial and filial piety, the emperor was furious, took Wei Zongzhao's title and exiled him to Lao Linghe, thousands of miles away.

At that time, Wei Zongzhao took his wife Wang and a son and a daughter to the matching house, his son Fu'an died of smallpox on the road, and his daughter was Wei Yining, who was only five years old at the time.

In the winter of the first year, Wei Zongzhao fell ill and died in Lao Linghe. Because the emperor had decreed last year that if an exiled prisoner died in a matchhouse, his wife and children would be allowed to return to his homeland.

Who would have thought that Wang would encounter bandits on the way back with Wei Yining and his youngest son Hongan, Hongan fell off the cliff, Wang's Sizi was heartbroken and frightened, and he couldn't afford to get sick, and he died in less than half a month.

Wei Yining returned to Beijing with his father's ashes, because he was filial piety, it was inconvenient to enter the Zhiyong Mansion, so he arranged to continue the mourning in the family temple.

Wait for 100 days and then enter the house in addition to filial piety.

When Wei Zongzhao was deprived of the title, the title of Duke Zhiyong was attacked by his half-brother Wei Zongyong.

The lady of the East Zen Temple is the concubine of Wei Zongyong's biological mother Zhang and her husband Wei Xun.

Now the Zhiyong Mansion is regarded as Wei Xun's step-family Zhu as the head lady, that is, the mother-in-law of Wei Zongyong and Wei Zongzhao. It has been eight years since Zhang came to the family temple to practice, and he has not returned to the house for so many years.

The first quarter moon sank in the west, and the night became darker.

In the East Zen Temple, Mrs. Tai had already gone to bed, and everyone else was also sleeping, only the sea lantern in the meditation hall was still burning.

The release pond glowed dimly, and a basket of fish was slowly lifted, already filled with loaches.

A large hand covers the basket to prevent the loaches from escaping.

The thief who stole the loach stood up, but he was a majestic man, and he didn't know that he thought that the night wandering god had descended to earth, but he thought that he was actually a thief who stole fish and shrimp.

The man took the basket in one hand, and in a few steps he stepped to the gable, and the high gable was easily crossed by him against the ridge.

The thief went about two miles further and turned into the woods beside the road.

A five-flowered horse was gnawing on the grass on the slope of the woods, and without a bridle or a saddle, came running up to the man from afar, with its big nostrils furled, and its head and tail rattling.

The man turned on his horse, and the horse, without command, went out of the woods as if he knew the way, and followed a path, and entered the city without hurrying.

"Grandpa, where did you get such a basket of fat loaches?" The little winter melon rubbed his hands and swallowed his saliva and asked.

"Naturally, Grandpa Ben personally fished it out, handed it over to the gourd, and let him get it for us to eat." The man spoke, and his voice was rough, and it matched his body perfectly.

The winter melon went in a hurry, even though it was not yet dawn.

It turned out that the thief who stole the loaches was actually the super brave prince of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Early the next morning, Chaoyong Gong Zhong Ye sat at the table and prepared breakfast.

The cook in the house, Hulu, brought a pot of mixed rice porridge.

Zhong Ye's eyes widened, and he stretched out his iron pestle-like fingers and pointed at the porridge bowl and asked the gourd: "Why is it mixed rice porridge again?" Where's the loach I got back last night? ”

As the name suggests, the gourd people are short, short, fat, white and clean, especially a pair of hands, white and plump, weak and boneless, softer than the hands of ordinary daughters.

Those who are familiar with him know that this is a pair of skillful hands that are earth-shattering. Not only can he make food that makes people want to stop, but he is also good at sewing and embroidering.

"Those loaches have to be raised in clear water and vomit all the mud and sand before they can eat," the gourd looked at his grandfather like an idiot: "It will take at least three days." ”

"It takes that long?!" The winter melon happened to walk in, and the saliva that was originally in his mouth suddenly turned into angry saliva, almost spraying on the gourd's face.

The gourd's eyes immediately plugged back, and the two white eyeballs shone brightly, almost despising the winter melon to death.

"So can't you get a few fat loaches to satisfy your hunger first? As the saying goes, 'there is a lord who grows in the ground, and the surname of the man born in the river', and you can get some after eating. Winter melon said without giving up.

"Most of these loaches are not coming from the right way," the gourd did not cover up for his grandfather at all: "How can you be so big in the river in ordinary times?" Most of them are from the release pond. ”

"Released loaches?" Winter melon couldn't help but feel anxious when he heard it: "Grandpa, I'm afraid this is not very good, right?" Eating what is released is a creator of iniquity. ”