Chapter Fifty-Eight: Out of the City on a Snowy Day
About half a year after Uncle Jiang's death, I passed the age of Jilu, I had already changed my hairstyle, and I was much more disciplined, no longer disguised as a man and mingled in the market, and I became more and more like a lady.
The woman and the queen can start to talk about marriage, and I don't know if the courtiers and princes and nobles know in their hearts that I have long been determined by the royal family and dare not come to propose, or my notoriety has already spread outside, in short, none of the matchmakers in the entire capital have come to the door, I see that my parents are not very anxious, and I am glad that I am idle.
It snowed heavily that day, and by the end of the afternoon, the snow had become lighter, with only scattered snow flakes slowly falling. Somehow, I sat at home a little panicked, so I avoided the attendant, took the red oil-paper umbrella, approved the fluffy big coat, and rode to the suburbs to relax.
Out of the city, the sky is wide and the clouds are low, and everywhere you can see is white, and your mood is a lot more open. I tied my horse to a willow tree and walked slowly along the creek outside the city. The river is not frozen, only a layer of foggy white ice has formed along the shore, and the river is bubbling and flowing, and the snow flakes are swallowed up and down the river in an instant.
I found a clean stone and sat down, put the umbrella around my neck, tilted my head and bent my cheeks to think about my thoughts. I have asked some people to secretly search for Jiang Ying for half a year, but I have never found anything, only that he has disappeared long since he killed himself in front of Uncle Jiang's battle. I originally wanted to go to Huaiqing, who was present at the time, to ask for clarification, but I didn't expect that after the Battle of Xiangping, Uncle Han claimed that he was seriously injured during the war and could not return to the capital after a long journey, and asked to recuperate in the same place. I thought that even if the king didn't comfort the meritorious minister, he should reject the petition and order him to go back to the capital to recuperate first. But unexpectedly, the monarch only glanced at the resignation fold, and said lightly: "Yes!"
Uncle Han didn't even go back to the house to pack up some belongings, so he directly took Huaiqing back to his hometown. I also sent a few letters to Huaiqing to inquire, but there was never a reply.
In the past six months, it seems that all the people around me have changed, Jiang Ying doesn't know where to go, Huaiqing has returned to his hometown and there is no news, Fuhua has always avoided me, my father has avoided me under the pretext of being busy with government and politics, and even Luo Fuzi's condition is getting worse and worse, and now he can't even get out of bed. For a woman who has no female relationship, such a change is extremely cruel, and I must know how to avoid suspicion of other men, but the only woman who can talk to me is my mother, and I have been forced to participate in several so-called ladies' court banquets, but I don't know why the ladies of those families will only roll their eyes at me when they see me, or they will be uncomfortable like black-eyed chickens without sarcasm, I can only ask the girl inexplicably: "Is there something wrong with them?" What else can be said?!
Therefore, I would rather go to the countryside to walk horses in this cold and snowy season in a nervous way than go to some boudoir for some so-called fireside talk.
I was crooked in a daze, and if someone thought I was in a daze, I was not in a daze, but I was thinking about the whole ins and outs of such a change, but I was really in a daze when I was motionless...... In short, at this time, I suddenly heard a shallow moan, which was originally so shallow that it would not have been heard in normal times, but at this time, the vast snow is silent, and this moan is particularly abrupt.
I was a little startled, I withdrew my mind from my thoughts, looked around, and saw that there was nothing but dead trees and rocks, and when I was surprised, I groaned again, and said two words in a low voice......
I hurriedly got up, followed the direction of the sound and searched for the river upstream, and had just walked about a dozen steps, when I suddenly saw a person lying behind a messy pile of stones! It was a man in green clothes, his blue robe was already soaked, and it was tightly attached to his body, I don't know how long he had been lying in this place, his robe had frozen, his hands lying on the snow had frozen and bruised, and his legs were still soaked in the river, and it could be seen that there were many wounds on his body, perhaps the wounds were frozen, and the amount of blood that came out of the shade was not much.
His messy hair was also frozen, blocking his face one by one, and at this time, his chapped lips suddenly moved, as if in a dream, and he called out two words in a low voice: "Fu'er......"
I suffocated, and in an instant my face receded, and I staggered almost unsteadily.
"Fuer......"
I knelt on the snow with a puff and trembled to cross him, perhaps too excited, and moved several times without success, until at last I gritted my teeth and exerted myself hard, and the man flipped over with my strength, and his frozen hair fell down, revealing a badly wounded white face.