When Jiang Qiao woke up, it was Dongfang Xiwei.

Chu Zhixia sat in front of the lamp that was about to go out at the table, stretched out his hand to extinguish the dancing flame on the wick, and turned his head to look at her: "Wake up, do you want to have breakfast?" ”

Jiang Qiao fumbled with the dry clothes on his body, looked around, and found that he was not in Fang Manting, and suddenly became nervous. Jiang Qiao wanted to thank Chu Zhixia, but he turned his head to see a stack of letters pressed by Chu Zhixia's subordinates, and froze.

"It's a letter from Jiangnan. Jiangnan is so big, it's not easy to find someone. I asked a caravan to inquire about the woman surnamed Qiao you mentioned, and I only received a reply yesterday. Chu Zhixia smoothed out the folds of the paper and handed it to her, "Do you want to see it for yourself?" ”

Jiang Qiao snatched the pieces of paper almost embarrassed, and after hastily scanning them, he showed a puzzled look: "What does the eldest lady mean?" This was not a reply to the woman's news. ”

"You can read." Chu Zhixia's knuckles tapped on the table, neither light nor heavy.

"The first time I saw you, I wasn't surprised that you said that your name was not Wan'er, your name was Jiang Qiao. Qinglou women often use flower names, one is to welcome and attract guests; The second is to cover up the way from coming, so as not to see relatives in the coming day and increase the humiliation. ”

Jiang Qiao crumpled a stack of papers and was silent.

"I heard that there was ice and snow in your flute sound, although it was not an ordinary brothel's method of training girls, but I didn't think much about it. It's just that if you have talent, the brothel is willing to find another way. ”

Chu Shixia said to himself: "A girl in the Qinglou is beautiful, knows the rhythm of music, and can read and break words, even if she is not an Oiran seedling, she must be popular in the building." Otherwise, wouldn't it be in vain that so much effort could not raise one's own value? ”

But it's weird.

Fang Manting was reluctant to let Jiang Qiao go, and he was unwilling to support her, but secretly looked for someone to buy her seat as a guest of the curtain. seemed to be afraid that Jiang Qiao would be recognized, and couldn't help but want to torture her to death.

"Your surname is Jiang, the Jiang of the Guangling Jiang clan."

Jiang Qiao took a deep breath and nodded.

"My flute was taught by my aunt."

——

Georgie is a famous beauty in Gangnam.

In the rich land of the south of the Yangtze River, feng shui nourishes people, and thousands of charming beauties emerge in endlessly. In addition to her own natural beauty, she is also indispensable to the promotion of literati and artists.

Some people don't know how to compare her to the reincarnation of "Er Qiao" and write poems for her; There are also people who spend a lot of money on the Fuliang River, just for the Pomeranians to smile; There are even people who are willing to pay a sky-high price of silver for her to carry her into the door.

But Joggie didn't look at anyone, and no one chose.

She saved enough money to redeem herself, so she bought a small courtyard full of phoenix flowers and lived in it. I thought that Qiao Ji's fame and beauty would come with spring and autumn, and she would be buried under the withered phoenix flowers and completely turned into a pile of white bones.

But the good times didn't last long, and the head of the Guangling Jiang clan set up a name, colluded with local officials, seized the courtyard, and also forcibly occupied Qiao Ji.

The main mother of the Guangling Jiang clan is the daughter of a wealthy family, although she can't stand Qiao Ji's humble status, but she can't resist her husband's lust, so she can only swallow her anger. Qiao Ji's identity in the Jiang family is very embarrassing, she is neither a wife nor a concubine, and she is locked in the deep mansion compound by the head of the Jiang family without a name.

Georgie was very cold to the head of the house, and just wanted to wait for the color to fade so that he could let himself go.

——

"My aunt said that a man's words cannot be trusted. When they swear an oath, they can stake their life's fame and fortune and the eighteenth generation of their ancestors, but if the oath is useful, there will be no Du Shi Niang in the world. ”

The famous Gangnam Georgie is loved by many men, but she doesn't love any of them.

"Maybe the only person in this world who has ever been loved by her is me." Jiang Qiao gently pressed his heart and whispered.

When Qiao Ji had Jiang Qiao, she became more and more fierce and asked to live back in that small courtyard. She didn't want her daughter to be looked down upon like herself, and she didn't want those foul words to fill Jiang Qiao's life. She would rather die quietly under the phoenix flower than make a beauty statue in this deep courtyard.

The head of the Jiang family still had some nostalgia for her, so he allowed it.

Anyway, Qiao Ji is not nominally from the Jiang family.

In that small courtyard, Qiao Ji taught Jiang Qiao to play the flute, play the piano, read and write, and do arithmetic. Everything else can be put aside, except for reading and arithmetic. At that time, Jiang Qiao was very puzzled, Qiao Ji's singing and dancing were quite famous, why did she want her daughter to go another way?

"The rhythm of singing and dancing, in the hands of people like us, is not to show ourselves, but to please others. But if you want to live in this world, you have to have real skills. Georgie stroked the top of her hair and said, "Only by being reasonable, understanding right and wrong, and being good at strategy can you live a long time." ”

"Qiaoqiao, don't be a silk flower that climbs the arbor. You have to be the arbor itself, if one day, the tide of destruction comes, you can also save yourself from thousands of fires and waters. ”

Jiang Qiao spent her peaceful sixteen years under the phoenix flower.

Then the head of the Jiang family who ruined Qiao Ji's peaceful life died.

It doesn't matter if he dies, but Georgie falls from one cave to another. Mrs. Jiang, who has a noble status, already has a grudge against Qiao Ji, and a white silk strangled Qiao Ji to death, which is far from relieving the hatred in her heart.

What's more, when the man was alive, he had a lot of love for Jiang Qiao, and Jiang Qiao was far more intelligent than the children of the Jiang family, so he recorded Jiang Qiao in the name of Mrs. Jiang and entered the Jiang family tree. Mrs. Jiang gritted her teeth day by day, secretly glad that Jiang Qiao was not a man.

"He said that he loved my aunt and loved him to death, but he never thought about it for my aunt, when he died, anyone could take my aunt's life." Jiang Qiao smiled self-deprecatingly, "Maybe it's his plan to let my aunt accompany him to the funeral." ”

But the eldest son of the Jiang family did not move a finger from Jiang Qiao and Qiao Ji.

He said to Mrs. Jiang slowly, "A bitch's daughter should also be a bitch, right?" ”

For Georgie, death is a form of relief. Jiang Qiao, who tortured Qiao Ji with all her pure emotions, was the most cruel punishment for Qiao Ji.

The eldest son of the Jiang family forced Qiao Ji's life to take Jiang Qiao north. After all, the Jiang family has a head and a face in the Jiangnan business community, and if the Jiang family's daughter is messing around in the fireworks field, the Jiang family will also lose face. But in the imperial capital, where the mountains and rivers are far away, it is different, Jiang Qiao not only has to obediently obey his arrangement, but also sensibly conceals his identity.

Otherwise, Qiao Ji, who is far away in the south of the Yangtze River, is a dead end.

——

"Fang Manting is the Jiang family's property, Jiang Boling took me north just by the way, his real purpose is to climb the Chen family." Jiang Qiao paused slightly and looked at Chu Zhixia, "The first time I saw you, I wanted to use you, I know that you are different from them, if anyone else can save me, it can only be you." ”

"Do I look like a living bodhisattva?" Chu Zhixia smiled noncommittally.

"I can exchange with you, as long as you want, as long as I have. I've helped you once, and you know I can do it. Jiang Qiao said firmly, "I don't need you to save me, I have my own way." I just want to know, my aunt is ...... Are you still alive? ”

Chu Zhixia looked at those eyes, clear and cold.

She had heard more than one person say that Jiang Qiao's eyes were very similar to hers. Chu Zhixia thought a little distractedly, are my eyes like this? It's like a pool of water that has been carved out of a glacial lake, and it's bitterly cold.

"Actually, when you asked, you already had the answer in your heart, didn't you?" Chu Zhixia was a little unbearable for no reason.

Jiang Qiao subconsciously grabbed the brocade quilt under his hand, tensed his body, and stared at her deadly. Jiang Qiao is a person who doesn't cry when she doesn't see the coffin, or is she full of luck about Qiao Ji's life and death, always thinking about what if?

What if, God is really willing to pity her once?

What if, Joggie is still willing to wait for her?

Chu Zhixia sighed, took out a thin piece of letter paper from his arms, walked to the bed and handed it to her.

"That courtyard has long been burned. Joki set herself on fire a long time ago, and there was nothing left in the yard. ”

"She's dead." Chu Zhixia said softly.

Chu Zhixia's hand held the sword and pulled the bow, steady as a rock. Jiang Qiao stared blankly at the piece of paper in her hand, which was only one page, and was lightly pinched in her hand. A person's life and death, such a heavy thing, can be written on a piece of paper as light as a feather.

How transparent and open-minded is Georgie, when she is an Oiran, she doesn't care about the benefactors who come and go and the wealth that flows like water; When she was a mother, she carried Jiang Qiao up, but she didn't want to be the hand that pulled Jiang Qiao into the quagmire.

She wants Jiang Qiao to be an arbor, and she wants Jiang Qiao to live fearlessly, how can she be willing to entangle this tree and make a dodder seed?

Jiang Qiao trembled and took the letter from Chu Zhixia's hand, and looked at it word by word in disbelief, as if there was still a trace of room to turn around. The caravan took Chu Shixia's money, but it didn't find anyone, and the money was easy to come by, so he couldn't help but write a few more words.

"In the snow lane of Qing'anli, Guangling City, Qiao's daughter, died of self-immolation on the first day of the fourth year of Xiangfu. Qiao Nu was sold into a prostitute at the age of seven, and at the age of twenty and seven, she ransomed herself. From then until his death, his life is unknown. ”

Jiang Qiao only felt that his throat and heart were blocked by a ball of soaked cotton, stuffed to the brim, and he couldn't breathe. She felt like she was going to suffocate, her throat numb, and she lost the strength to throb.

Chu Zhixia sighed and wiped the tears from her face.

Jiang Qiao crumpled the letter paper and let out a low, long whimper, and for a long time, she squeezed a hoarse cry out of her throat, as if she was about to vomit blood.

Jiang Qiao grabbed the piece of paper that was soaked with tears, and his plain white fingertips crushed every word on it. This was clearly her mother's obituary, but she clung so hard, like a drowning person grasping at a life-saving straw.

It was her mother's death and her life. Only by remembering that Qiao Ji is dead, Jiang Qiao can live - she wants to live, and she wants to send those who should go to hell to hell with her own hands.

Chu Shixia patted her on the back and hugged her gently.

——

Jiang Qiao cried enough, so he quietly sat on the bed with his knees hugged, like a clay puppet. Jiang Qiao was only wearing a white undershirt, a small lump, and she didn't look like the famous Qiao Ji, just a little girl.

"You know I'm using you, why do you want to help me?" Jiang Qiao asked in a low voice, his voice hoarse.

"You have taken advantage of me, but you have done me no harm. Didn't I take advantage of you too? Chu Zhixia sat beside her, looked at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, and said, "What's more, I guessed that Qiao Ji was your mother." I pity you. ”

Chu Zhixia and Jiang Qiao were very close to each other, and they could smell the bitter herbs on her body.

"I haven't even seen my mother."

Chu Shixia gestured and said, "I was raised by my elder brother, and I have two elder brothers, one is sick and the other is two hundred and five. They didn't think it was a big deal for their daughter's family to be without a mother, so they took me to the ancestral hall during the Chinese New Year and knelt down, pointed to a wooden tablet and said, 'Call Mother', and then kowtow to me, even if my mother blessed me in the spirit of heaven. ”

Jiang Qiao reluctantly agreed: "I heard that the old princess is a person with a strong personality. ”

"If it's not tough, there's no way, who made my dad a jerk?" Chu Zhixia raised his eyebrows and said, "My eldest brother is both a father and a mother, so I don't feel how wronged I am." can see that people have mothers, and they are still a little envious. ”

Jiang Qiao was silent.

"Don't be afraid, Jiang Qiao." Chu Shixia finally said a human word, "Your mother's spirit in the sky will bless you." ”