The Words of the Number One

Shen Baiwu hates noise, so his Xueming Pavilion is the quietest on weekdays. The servants come and go with small steps on tiptoe and speak softly. It was as if a needle could make an abrupt sound when it fell on the ground.

He has many servants but they change them frequently. Before I came, Shen Baiwu didn't have a first-class maid, and he always called whoever was around. The housekeeper told me many points to pay attention to when Shen Baiwu was sick, and even told me not to be noisy and talkative is the most important thing.

Shen Baiwu met me as my master for the first time. He sat on the bed covered with a quilt, his gaze shifted from the book in his hand to my face, and he said flatly: "I asked you to come here from Ji Yu, you Any dissatisfaction?"

I shook my head and said, "No."

Shen Baiwu didn't say anything anymore, and told me to wait in the room if he needed anything, he would call me. I retreated to the door, separated from Shen Baiwu by a gauze screen woven with gold embroidered orchids, his thin and thin shadow was blurred behind the screen.

After the steward and all the servants retreated, in the silence as if time stood still, I asked, "Mr. Cheng Guang, can I ask you a question?"

Cheng Guangjun's shadow moved, and I heard his usual indifferent voice.

"Whatever your Highness the Ninth Princess wants to ask, just ask."

Sure enough, he overheard my conversation with Jiang Sanzhi.

"I heard that you offered to help Young Master on the condition of getting me. I want to know why you want to get me."

"I'm very curious about what kind of person is a woman who can say 'It's not difficult to restore the country', who can be entrusted with such a heavy responsibility by Ji Yu." He did not hide it, speaking calmly and fluently.

I was silent, and said: "I'm just an ordinary person, as you can see, I'm a clumsy person."

"As I see it, he's very smart and easygoing." Shen Baiwu's voice paused, and then he said: "I thought Ji Yu would not agree, and this request was made to ask him to retreat in spite of difficulties, not to offend Her Royal Highness. Since he I will not break my promise if I agree, I will give His Royal Highness some property when Ji Yu leaves Ling'an, and His Highness can leave on his own."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head to read his book again. Looking at the shadowy man in white behind the screen, I felt a little confused.

I used to think that Shen Baiwu wanted me to come for some benefit. He wants me to work for him, wants me to handle Ji Yu's account books, and wants me to be the hidden princess of Qi. But he didn't want anything and was going to let me go.

I thought there were no good intentions for no reason in the world, but Shen Baiwu has always been upright and arrogant, and he doesn't bother to lie.

I suddenly remembered the day when I learned that I was going to lobby King Zhao, I asked Ji Yuruo if he would let me go free after I helped him with this matter, but Ji Yu was noncommittal.

He is here, let me go free?

I think I should be happy, but I don't know why I don't feel happy. I heard my voice, calm and smiling: "Thank you, Mr. Cheng Guang."

Shen Baiwu behind the screen seems to be looking up at me, I don't know what's wrong with this sentence, why does he look at me like that.

"Do you think Ji Yu doesn't care about you?"

Shen Baiwu said that suddenly, his tone was light but somewhat mocking, I was speechless.

"From the beginning, I felt that Ji Yu cared about you unusually, so I thought he would not agree. But I didn't expect that he cared more about you than I imagined, so that he couldn't wait to push you away." Shen Baiwu coughed in a low voice After a few sips, I went to pour hot tea, and went around the screen to serve it to him.

Shen Baiwu picked up the teacup and took a few sips, his breathing calmed down a little, he raised his eyes as clean and cold as spring water in winter and said: "Ji Yu is too proud, you have to pay a thousand times more love to be willing to show mercy Point, you crossed his boundaries."

He spoke simply and straightforwardly, and the Ji Yu outlined in a few sentences was accurate to the point.

You have to pay a thousand times more love to be willing to take pity on him, and this is Ji Yu. Shen Baiwu may be the person who knows Ji Yu best in this world.

I kept a smile on my face, but countless pictures flashed in my mind. Those details and unbelievable guesses that I ignored, Ji Yu said that I would abandon something if I liked it, his flustered expression when I was injured and fainted.

Ji Yu asked me to guess the answer to the riddle.

Words read a gentleman, warm him like jade. In its wooden house, it messes with my heart.

These indistinct traces, seeming provocations, if this person is not Ji Yu, I should have confirmed it long ago.

Shen Baiwu observed the change in my expression, and sighed helplessly: "Your Highness never dared to trust Ji Yu, right? But, he deserved it."

He closed the book and put it next to him, saying that he was going to visit the garden, so I called other servants to come and change his clothes with me. I kept doing work on my hands, but my mind was chaotic and complicated. When I helped Shen Baiwu out of the room, the sunshine in late spring and early summer rushed and surrounded us warmly from thousands of miles away.

I looked up, the sky was clear and cloudless, and when the wind blew, it carried the fragrance of sycamore trees, and Shen Baiwu beside me narrowed his eyes slightly. His pale face was dyed bright by the sun, as if it would soon melt into the warmth.

I remembered that pair of phoenix eyes. If the sun is so bright, the color will be as light as amber or syrupy, shining brightly.

In fact, I have always thought that I know too many things, probably one day he will get rid of me, and in my life before that, I will hide my secret thoughts and stay by his side.

It was Ji Yu's choice, whether he cared about me or abandoned me.

I'm not Gu Ling, what can I be reluctant to do? I have not grown up with him for fourteen years, and I have never owned Ji Yu, so there is no such thing as loss.

That's it, that's fine.

The sun hurt my eyes a little, so I closed them. Then he turned his head and said to Shen Baiwu: "Don't call me Your Highness, Ah Zhi was given the name by the old lord, if you want, you can call me Jiujiu."

Shen Baiwu seemed a little surprised, he nodded in response, "Jiujiu."

I smiled and said yes.

Shen Baiwu's life here was as quiet as a pool of water. Princess Yongchang sent several messages to Shen Baiwu, saying that she wanted to visit Ji Yu to make amends to him. Shen Baiwu knew very well that Yongchang had all the small calculations in his heart and rejected them all. I heard that Princess Yongchang was crying and making noise at home, and she was very sad.

He knew very well that people like Ji Yu would remember them for a lifetime when they saw them once, so it's better not to meet them in case Yongchang is getting deeper and deeper.

He forbids the people from Xueming Pavilion to communicate with the people from Wen Eryuan, so I haven't seen Zikou and the others very often. Just listening to Gu Ling chatting, saying that Xu Zihuan's confession was ordered by the queen, Zhao Wang was furious, and it happened that there was a military coup on the front line, and Fan Yanfeng died in the rebellion of the Wu army.

Zhao Wang was furious and imprisoned the queen, claiming to break off justice with Wu Guoen, and ordered Zhao Jun to turn around and join Fan Guo to rescue Yu and attack Wu.

It seems that the meeting between Zhao Wang and Fan Guo's secret envoy went well, and the play was very vivid.

Listening to these stories, I feel inexplicably funny and boring, as if everything in this world is false, only my coming freedom is real.

Shen Baiwu's health is really poor, a slight change in the climate will cause problems, and he spends one-third of the time lying in bed during the day. The decoction is continuous, and there is routine acupuncture every day.

Doctors sometimes say that massage and acupuncture will be very painful, Shen Baiwu sweats every time but never complains of pain. Once I found that he bit his lip because of the pain. After the doctor left, I said: "The doctor said it will be very painful. Even if you shout out, no one will say you."

He was lying on the bed exhausted, and slowly turned his eyes to look at me. I sat by his bed and wiped the sweat off his face with a wet towel, and smiled softly: "The good thing about being sick is that you lose your temper and shout pain." What an excuse, it's already uncomfortable, and it's a pity not to enjoy such a little benefit."

The light in Shen Baiwu's eyes moved slightly, and the sunlight fell into his eyes through the window paper, like snow that was about to melt. He has been like this since the first day I saw him, alienated, cold, arrogant, white, and fragile.

"Do you think being alive is a happy thing, Jiujiu?" He asked me suddenly.

I shook my head and nodded again.

"I once carried a letter for a soldier who died on the battlefield. His legs were all **** and bloody. He crawled out of the pile of dead people and crawled to my feet bit by bit. He hugged my feet and begged me to bring a letter to his family. I also know a dancer who loved dancing all her life, but her feet were cut off and hung on the city gate. Even so, they still struggled to live before they died. Worse things always happen in this world, and maybe I will also We will meet, so now we are considered happy.”

I took his arm to wipe his hands, and said, "So Cheng Guang-jun, I am greedy for life and afraid of death."

He was startled and then smiled, still a very shallow smile, but there was a little warmth in his eyes.

In fact, Shen Baiwu is not a difficult person to get along with, most of his cold face and sarcasm are directed at Ji Yu, other times he is alienated and ordinary. There is also the world-weariness and melancholy that silently breed under the perennial torture of illness.

I would talk to him about the maple leaves all over the mountains and plains in autumn in Qi State, the sunset-like plum blossoms on Luomei Mountain in Song State, and the husband and wife bridge passing by red makeup ten miles away in Muyun City in Wu State. I told him that you can go see it when you feel better.

Shen Baiwu always said that his health would never get better.

After another high fever subsided, at dusk Shen Baiwu stood on the corridor on the second floor of Xueming Pavilion, the sun shining through the dusty air and making the world golden, and I followed beside him.

"I'm already a useless person, what's the point of living like this?" he murmured.

Useless?

From elementary school, Shen Baiwu learned the way of managing the world and governing the country. He is outstanding and outshine others. I have heard of him as a genius when I was young. After coming back from the Kingdom of Yan, he spent the rest of his life trapped in the bed with decoctions and medicines all day long, and only one-third of the time he was awake a day.

The lofty first son fell overnight.

Now the world only knows Ji Yu, and there are a few who remember that Mr. Bai Wu was also an all-powerful young talent.

"Did you see that caterpillar on the sycamore tree?" I pointed to the branch next to the second floor corridor and asked, Shen Baiwu's eyes moved over, and he frowned slightly, as if he disliked the caterpillar for being too ugly.

"You are yourself only if you are alive, you are Shen Baiwu. If you die, you may become this caterpillar, the turtle in the pond, the ant in the soil..."

The more I talked about it, the more Shen Baiwu frowned, then I paused at the right moment, and said with a smile: "Cheng Guang-jun, you can choose and control what you live for, and you really can't control it when you die."

The depressed look between Shen Baiwu's eyebrows turned into helplessness, and he said, "Are you threatening me?"

"I'm telling you the truth."

He looked at me deeply, shook his head and couldn't help laughing and coughing, because the dim sunlight made him look warm and soft. I walked over to help him pat his back, thinking of Mrs. Zhao Guonan Huaijun whom I had rescued before, why? I always meet Zhao people who are world-weary.

Thinking of this, I also laughed, but when I lowered my eyes, I inadvertently saw Ji Yu and Xia Wan standing on the gravel road outside Xueming Pavilion, meeting Ji Yu's eyes. He looked at me blankly for a moment, with that deadpan smile I knew so well, then walked off in the other direction.

For some reason, I think he seems a little angry.

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angry? What are you angry about? You did not do it yourself.

Look at you, pour vinegar for yourself