Deng Mian is a high-roller in this vocal field, generous and coaxing, compared to the guests who are bad and moody, I don't know how much better. He was only over fourteen years old and fooled around with the gentlemen in the imperial capital, and the girls ate a lot of rouge on their mouths, and it was rare for him to be so cramped.

Deng Mian sat squarely behind the table, his eyes glancing at Jiang Qiao opposite from time to time.

Jiang Qiao sat by the window, wearing an ink-colored skirt with a low neckline, revealing the white and soft skin on her chest and the delicate lines of her shoulders and neck. She was not as restrained as Deng Mian, and she plucked the strings by herself, and the sound of spring rain dripping from her hands flowed.

"What tune does Childe want to hear?" Jiang Qiao asked.

Deng Mian squeezed the cup in his hand, and a layer of sweat broke out in his palm, "Aren't you a flute?" ”

"The girl from the Jade Workshop, she knows a little bit of everything." Jiang Qiao said calmly, "If the guests want to listen to the flute, I can also go back and get the flute." ”

Deng Mian shook his head violently, he didn't understand the rhythm, and he couldn't hear anything famous about the piano and flute.

Deng Mian still remembered the first time she saw Jiang Qiao, she lowered her head and mingled in the middle of a group of charming girls, lonely and cold like a plum blossom, and her cold eyes stinged him at once. Deng Mian was annoyed with Chu Zhixia at that time, so he wanted to use her to humiliate Chu Zhixia and change the name of others.

As a result, Chu Zhixia actually admired Jiang Qiao's appearance a little.

"Miss Wan'er......" Deng Mian hesitated to speak.

"Now it's called Weiran." Jiang Qiao corrected him, "The name Wan'er is guilty of the name of a noble guest's mother. ”

Deng Mian almost bit his tongue, "Miss Weiran, are you very familiar with Miss Chu?" ”

Jiang Qiao smiled a little inexplicably.

She has seen a lot of noble sons like Deng Mian.

Some are conceited and reserved, and in the name of appreciating singing and dancing, and pity the fragrance and jade, they hide the hearts of a pair of beasts and beasts, and they are exposed when they pick up their skins; Some don't even bother to hide it, and they expose their lust nakedly.

Jiang Qiao knew that she had fallen here, and it would not be an exaggeration for Deng Mian and his ilk to trample on her, even if she died, it would be just a matter of a straw mat. Deng Mian was able to talk to her here in a good voice, without moving a finger from her, all relying on Chu Zhixia's face.

"I've seen it a few times, and the eldest lady has praised me for my good flute." Jiang Qiao said conservatively.

Deng Mian nodded, but he still couldn't pull his face to apologize to her. He coughed dryly and said, "It was Miss Chu who called me here, so that Chen Jixun wouldn't come to you again." ”

Chen Jixun lay on the bed for more than ten days, and was finally able to get out of bed, trying to find trouble with Chu Zhixia but couldn't knock on the door of the Autumn Leaves Mountain Residence. Chu Zhixia stayed at home and told Deng Mian to go to Fang Manting to sit if he was fine.

Deng Mian thought that Jiang Qiao looked like Chu Zhixia's eyes, and wondered in his heart whether to redeem people and send them to the Autumn Leaves Mountain Residence in a few days. After all, Jiang Qiao didn't take guests seriously, and it was nothing to go to the Autumn Leaves Mountain Residence to be a maid.

Jiang Qiao leisurely plucked the strings, reflecting the singing and dancing outside the private room, like a layer of cold rain enveloping the night sheng song sales grotto.

Lonely, bitterly cold.

This is not a song that the girls will be taught to play in Fireworks Willow Alley.

In the Jade Fang, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are all means, and they are tricks to raise their value, and in the end, they have to bring the guests to the bed. So most of the tunes that the girls here learn are lingering tunes, hooking the guests to the fire.

Deng Mian got goosebumps when he heard this, and said in a daze: "I know why she likes to listen to you play the flute and the piano." ”

Jiang Qiao stopped and looked at him curiously.

"Your tune sounds like one of those places in the clouds that can freeze people to death."

Jiang Qiao smiled and said without any meaning: "My family lives in Jiangnan. ”

Deng Mian was even more puzzled, "So far, why did you come to the emperor?" ”

Jiang Qiao was silent and did not answer.

At this moment, there was a rush of footsteps outside the private room, and when I heard it, I knew that there were quite a few people. Before Deng Mian could react, the door of the private room was vigorously pulled open, and a group of people blocked the door.

Deng Mian saw Chen Jixun standing in front of him at a glance, and stood up a little nervously.

"Deng Gongzi is so Yaxing, come to the Jade Pavilion and don't sleep girl, what are you doing sitting with people with affection?" Chen Jixun had a hippie smile, and he couldn't see the previous embarrassment at all.

"When you do business, you have to talk about first-come, first-served, right?" Deng Mian quietly blocked Jiang Qiao behind him.

"If you don't talk about the first come, you can't tell me." Chen Jixun turned sideways and took half a step back, and a baby-faced teenager came out behind him.

Deng Mian's face instantly faded bloody.

"I've seen the Third Highness." Deng Mian grabbed Jiang Qiao and knelt down.

"Deng Mian, you eat things inside and out." The third prince stepped on Deng Mian's shoulder and crushed it hard, but his eyes fell on Jiang Qiao's body, like a handful of coals, about to burn layers of blood bubbles on her lamb-like skin.

"This is the person Chu Zhixia robbed you with?"

The third prince pinched Jiang Qiao's cheek, forced her to raise her head, and smiled, "Isn't this the 'Wan'er' I bought the first night before, and was cut off by Chu Zhixia?" Your Highness gave you a new name, do you still like it? What's it called now? ”

"Back to Your Highness, the people's daughter is amazing."

"Whatever you call it." The third prince said impatiently, and turned to Deng Mian and said, "This person, His Royal Highness took him away today, do you want to tell me about coming first and coming later?" ”

Deng Mian stiffened, unable to say a word.

The third prince dragged Jiang Qiao out, and Jiang Qiao staggered past Deng Mian, like a white bird with broken wings.

——

Jiang Qiao easily figured out the trick.

She didn't know Chu Zhixia's background, but the third prince was someone Chu Shixia could never afford to offend.

If Jiang Qiao treated the third prince like Chen Jixun, it would not only be her who died, but also Chu Zhixia. Chen Jixun's abacus crackled, and he was determined to get the field back in Chu Zhixia's hands. The third prince was also dissatisfied with Chu Shixia in his words and deeds, and he may not think so.

This time, no one came to save her.

Jiang Qiao thought in a daze, and actually lowered his head and smiled.

Don't be so naïve, right? How could someone save her again and again?

Where did she have such good luck.

"Take it off." The third prince raised his chin and said to her proudly.

Jiang Qiao unbuckled his belt and peeled his body from his shirt little by little.

Tunics, skirts, bandeau ...... Neck, elbows, waist and calves.

Jiang Qiao looked at his reflection from the pupils of the third prince's eyes indifferently and firmly, without any intention of humiliation or begging for mercy. It was not her who seemed to be standing in the middle of the room, being skinned and stared at like an animal.

There was a sudden knock on the door, and someone outside said, "Your Highness, Deng Mian was about to run to the Autumn Leaves Mountain Residence, but we caught him." ”

The third prince said lazily: "Tie him up and throw him in." ”

Jiang Qiao's body trembled slightly, but he stood still and did not move, not giving the third prince a chance to attack.

As soon as the door opened and closed, Deng Mian, who was tied up, was pushed in, and the door behind him was locked. Deng Mian looked at Jiang Qiao naked in front of him in shock, and the third prince who evoked a wicked smile, so nervous that he even forgot to breathe.

"So anxious to report to Chu Zhixia, is she a very important person?" The third prince asked.

Deng Mian subconsciously shook his head, "Your Highness, she's just a prostitute, it's none of her business......"

The third prince nodded, not taking Deng Mian's words to heart at all, "I think she does have a bit of a look, I snatched her from you, I have to give you a drink...... Why don't you just look at it like that, okay? ”

Deng Mian had never seen such a posture, he subconsciously shook his head, sweating profusely.

"She doesn't know anything, Chu Zhixia just listened to her play the flute!"

"What are you nervous about? She's a prostitute, and it's her honor to be favored by me. The third prince stroked Jiang Qiao's shoulder and pressed her to her knees, "Maybe after tonight, she will become famous, and from now on, the Spring Festival will be worth a thousand gold, and she will have to thank me, right?" ”

Jiang Qiao said softly: "Yes." ”

She is clearly a woman who makes a living in this wind and dust field, and what she earns is skin and flesh money. What chastity and what insult are words that have nothing to do with her. But Deng Mian didn't know why, he remembered Jiang Qiao's clear eyes, her faint smile and cold tune.

This plum blossom was still broken off.

Scattered into mud and dust.

Deng Mian closed his eyes stiffly, and hot tears burst out of his eyes.

——

Akiba Mountain House.

The lotus flower in the patio is still withering.

Chu Zhixia uprooted the dead lotus, and saw that the jade bead was called evil. Chu Zhixia walked around to the back door of the courtyard and threw the lotus flower into the ditch at the base of the wall. She sat at the back door, staring at the thin and narrow sky in the alley for a moment.

From time to time, there were wandering beggars in the alley, watching her cautiously and vigilantly.

Chu Zhixia smiled and beckoned the maid to come out with rice balls and water for them. Groups of beggars devoured their experience, and they were choked by the rice balls, and they did not forget to praise her as a female bodhisattva.

"A female bodhisattva doesn't dare to be." Chu Shixia sighed, "I kill people like hemp, I just hope that I don't go to hell after I die." ”

"Where are you from?" Chu Zhixia asked.

There were more than a dozen beggars in this group, all of them with yellow faces and thin muscles, and their clothes were ragged. Seeing that the weather was getting cold, under their dirty rags, the ribs on their chests were protruding, and they were clearly visible one by one.

It's not that Chu Zhixia hasn't seen people begging, but it's the first time he's seen so many and such small children appear in a dense manner.

"Yanzhou." The little beggar ate with a round belly, carefully looked at Chu Zhixia's face, and saw that she didn't look like a stingy person, so she was relieved and boldly carried two rice balls into her arms.

"Is there a natural disaster in Yanzhou?" Chu Zhixia's heart tightened.

Jishui flows into the sea from Yanzhou, and if there is a natural disaster, it must be a flood. Floods and levees have been a major event in all dynasties, and a bad meal is a man-made disaster caused by starvation and plague. Summer is rainy, and looking at the age of these children, if they want to go from Yanzhou to the imperial capital, it must have been last year.

But there was not the slightest rumor in the imperial capital.

The little beggar nodded and said lonely: "The levee was washed away by the flood and flooded the farmland. The family can't pay the taxes and can't even eat. My father and mother starved to death, leaving only me and my sister to the imperial capital, and ate the porridge given by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the spring. ”

Chu Zhixia frowned and took the little beggar's hand. The little beggar was startled, but he didn't dare to struggle, and bit the rice ball to give himself courage. Chu Zhixia saw the layers of calluses and scars covering his palms, and when he lowered his head, he caught a glimpse of his festering toes.

If it is a beggar in the imperial capital, there are many chilblains and calluses on his hands and feet, but he will not walk such a long road, and naturally there will be no blood blisters that have been ground out again and again, and scars that have been crushed again and again.

Nine out of ten of these children fled from Yanzhou.

"Female Bodhisattva, will there be rice balls tomorrow?" The child asked in a low voice, timidly.

"Yes." Chu Zhixia turned his head and instructed the maid, "Tomorrow we will still put down water and rice balls here." ”

The maid nodded in response.

Chu Zhixia got up and returned to the center of Autumn Leaf Mountain, and bumped into Yuzhu, who was eagerly coming with a skirt.

"Miss, there's news from the caravan that went to Jiangnan." Yuzhu's face was pale, "How could you be involved with this kind of person?" ”