Roselle Peony

Yang Yuanzhen woke up and found himself in a strange place. The house was painted with ocher paint, potted antiques were randomly arranged in the corners, and white silk curtains were hung on the windows. The decoration was simple yet elegant.Looking at the sky, it was already sunset, and my body was warm. It turned out that I was on a big bed, covered with a thick brocade quilt.

He felt that there seemed to be something stuck on his stomach, and when he touched it, it turned out that there was a white bandage on his stomach.

Yang Yuanzhen thought in his heart that his father found out that he hadn't come home and wanted to spank him again, so he hurriedly struggled to sit up little by little. Suddenly, he felt unbearable pain in his stomach, which made him unable to lie down, half of his body was hanging on the edge of the bed, Wet wipes also fell on the floor.

I only heard someone outside say: "Master Yang is awake." The door was pushed open, and a servant came with a steaming basin, helped him back to the bed and lay down, and told him not to move around.Then I changed him into a hot towel and left.

After a while Yang Yuanzhen heard the noise again, opened his eyes and saw that it was Mr. Lu Shangqiu who was holding a bowl of traditional Chinese medicine and put it on the desk next to his bed.

"Brother Yuan, you're awake."

"Xiao Qiu, where am I?" Yang Yuanzhen asked, his lips felt dry and his voice was hoarse.

"You are in Lu Mansion, my guest room."

Ever since he saw Lu Shangqiu, he had already guessed that Xiao Qiu took him home to take care of him, and his brother Qiu loved him even more than his own brother.Thinking of this, he felt warm in his heart, smirked for a while, and then asked, "What's wrong with me?"

"You were injured internally by Zhao Liuyi's punch. The doctor has come to see you and healed the blood for you."

Yang Yuanzhen pinched his thigh secretly, it was miserable, he played truant and was injured again in a martial arts competition, this time he was going to be beaten to death by his father.

Lu Shangqiu saw that he sometimes smiled and sometimes frowned, his expression sometimes joyful and sometimes painful, thinking that he was in a daze, so he waved the young man's pair of jade hands in front of his eyes.

Yang Yuanzhen stretched out his hand from the bed, grabbed the dangling claws in front of him, and stuffed them into the warm bed together: "Thank you for taking care of me, Xiao Qiu. But I have to go home quickly, or my father will not spare me."

A look of disappointment flashed across Lu Shangqiu's face, he pulled his hand out of Yang Yuanzhen's bed, and said, "The doctor said, you suffered an internal injury, and you can't move around for a short time, otherwise it will affect the healing of the wound."

Yang Yuanzhen said: "I'm not in the way, I have rough skin and thick flesh." He hurriedly got up.

Lu Shangqiu held him down: "Brother Yuan, I know you are afraid of your father. I have already sent someone to say hello to your father, saying that you will be studying at Lu's house tonight and tomorrow, and you will spend the night at Lu's house by the way."

When Yang Yuanzhen heard that he had sent someone to contact Yang's father, he didn't care about the pain in a hurry, and got up and grabbed Lu Shangqiu's arm: "Then did you tell my father about the fact that I played truant and got injured in the martial arts competition?"

Lu Shangqiu suddenly wanted to tease him: "Well, I won't tell you."

Yang Yuanzhen shook him anxiously: "Tell me quickly, do you have any? If you tell my father, your younger brother Yuan will have his ass bloom tonight."

Hearing his description, Lu Shangqiu burst out laughing: "Of course - no."

"Huh, Xiaoqiu, you're scaring me." Yang Yuanzhen breathed a sigh of relief, "I knew my good Xiaoqiu was the one who defended me the most."

Lu Shangqiu said: "I won't tell, but Zhao Liuyi, and the family who brought you back all know what happened, and besides, the master will also find out about our truancy. If there is such a big commotion, your father will know sooner or later." everything."

Yang Yuanzhen lay back on the bed with a dejected "dong", and grinned again from the pain. "Then I have to hide at your house."

"You can hide from the first day of the junior high school, but you can't hide from the fifteenth day." Lu Shangqiu brought over the bowl of traditional Chinese medicine: "This is a medicine for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. You drink it and lie down for me honestly. I arranged a servant at the door to watch , they will bring dinner later, if you have anything, feel free to call them. But—” Lu Shangqiu pointed to the figures of the servants at the door, “The servants of the Lu family are all good at work. Sneaking out to play, you have to weigh it."

He stared at Yang Yuanzhen, pinched his nose and frowned, poured down the Chinese medicine, and immediately got up: "I'm going to see my father, I'll come as soon as I go."

***

He said he would come as soon as he went, but Lu Shangqiu still disappeared for more than an hour.It turned out that Lu Suyuan accused him of playing truant and making trouble, punishing him to face the wall and thinking about his mistakes, and not allowing Yan to intercede.His aunt secretly poured out the dinner that the cook gave him, making him hungry all night.

It was getting dark, and Lu Shangqiu finally appeared in front of Yang Yuanzhen again.

"Brother Yuan, isn't this dinner to your liking?" Lu Shangqiu stared at Yang Yuanzhen's almost untouched meal beside his bed, hungry.

"It's because my body hurts and I have no appetite." Yang Yuanzhen replied.

"You don't eat?"

"Yeah, I don't want to eat."

"Then I'm welcome."

Yang Yuanzhen was still wondering how he asked this question, but he saw Mr. Lu, who was usually well-mannered, sitting by the bed, picked up the chopsticks he used, and he didn't think it was dirty, and he actually started eating.Yang Yuanzhen then opened his mouth into a full circle, watching Lu Shangqiu gobble it up without any image.When the boy was growing up, he couldn't bear to be starved. The food sent to Yang Yuanzhen by his servants were light side dishes and rice porridge, which were tasteless, and Mr. Lu didn't mind it.

"Cough, cough—" Lu Shangqiu choked on eating too quickly, and coughed violently.Yang Yuanzhen sat up with support, and patted his back to smooth him out.

"I can't eat anyway, so eat slowly so you don't choke." Yang Yuanzhen guessed that he must have been punished by Lu's father for not having dinner.If he himself made a mistake, his father would punish him like this.It turns out that Xiaoqiu and herself are in the same disease.Thinking of this, Yang Yuanzhen, the "patient", comforted Lu Shangqiu, "I know your father punished you without food, but if it were my father, he would definitely take my skin off. I have never seen your father beat you. , you have to know how hard my father beat me..." Yang Yuanzhen shuddered reflexively before he finished speaking.

Seeing that he misunderstood, Lu Shangqiu didn't say anything, but slowed down the speed of eating.He remembered that he was the official son whom everyone envied in the eyes of others, but he could only endure the bullying by his aunt and had nowhere to tell, his eyes gradually became hot.Seeing that his eyes were red, Yang Yuanzhen thought that he had said something wrong, so he closed his mouth and only concentrated on finishing the meal with Mr. Lu.

***

After the servants cleaned up the dishes, Yang Yuanzhen tried to liven up the atmosphere: "Xiaoqiu, your father is the governor, do you have any collection of martial arts secrets in your house? I'm so bored lying here all day."

Lu Shangqiu rolled his eyes at him: "Nonsense, where did you get the martial arts secrets?" After thinking for a while, he said, "My mother loves reading scriptures. I remember she has a book that teaches martial arts. Wait until I borrow it from my mother." Come."

When Lu Shangqiu came back from his mother's book library, he had an extra copy of "Bagua Quxiangjing", which is one of the introductory books of Taoist Five Elements and Bagua Meridians. Yang Yuanzhen happened to have never read it, so he thanked Lu Shangqiu and read it with relish in the bed When I got up, I was fascinated by watching it for a while, and completely forgot the original intention of enlivening the atmosphere.

The guest room is not empty of books as Yang Yuanzhen said, instead there is a big bookcase, but it is a pity that Yang Yuanzhen browsed around before but did not find one that attracted him.Lu Shangqiu saw that Yang Yuanzhen was reading vigorously, making gestures with his hands and feet from time to time, so he also browsed the bookshelves, and finally took a copy of "Wu Gu Wen" from the corner.This "Five Grain Questions" describes the grain production policy in the early Tang Dynasty. It is very boring to many people who are not involved in production. Presumably the guests who came before have skipped this book, so the book Liang There was a thick layer of dust on it.

Lu Shangqiu, a man who doesn't distinguish between grains and grains, took this book out of curiosity.Sitting at the desk and flipping through a few pages, seeing that it was really boring, I wanted to put it back.

Just the moment he closed the book, he suddenly saw a page of pictures, a page of pictures that should not appear in this book.

It was a page of erotic pictures.

Lu Shangqiu was so frightened that he quickly closed the book.Although he is only 14 years old, he has read a lot of books, so it is inevitable that he has read some love novels. He knows a little about love between men and women, and he has seen erotic pictures, so it is not surprising.But why are there erotic pictures in this book?He held the book up to the candlelight and took a closer look. There were faint traces of tearing on the spine, and the middle pages were slightly darker than the outermost pages.Someone must have tampered with the book and pretended it was a boring book, but in fact it was a fancy book that could be pretended and would not be discovered when you took it out.

Lu Shangqiu glanced at Yang Yuanzhen who was immersed in the "martial arts cheats", and secretly opened the book again.It turns out that this "Wu Gu Wen" contains another novel "Hua Jian Zi Ji".Lu Shangqiu made up his mind and said: "I read this book to appreciate literary works." So he read it from the beginning.

This "Hua Jian Zi Ji" is different from other novels.Lu Shangqiu's face flushed while reading, and after reading, his face was as red as boiled shrimp.The contents of the book are too shocking not only for Lu Shangqiu, but also for many adults.It turns out that "Hua Jian Zi Ji" is a collection of novels about men and women. The book contains twelve short stories, all of which describe the love between men and men.Lu Shangqiu read the first article "Zhao Xiaotong failed to plant flowers deliberately, but Gu Shirang planted willows and willows unintentionally to make shade", which narrates the love story of Gu Shirang, a scholar in the Sui Wendi period, and his surname Zhao Shutong.In the later stories, there are more exciting descriptions such as the prince of the Southern Dynasty playing with the child prostitute, and the pre-Qin ghost haunting the down-and-out scholar.Each story is accompanied by two to three illustrations, all of which depict two people dressed as men falling in love, and some of them are erotic illustrations depicting love scenes between men and women.

Lu Shangqiu in this room saw his mouth dry, touched his red and hot face, looked up at Yang Yuanzhen who was studying hard in that room, saw that he didn't notice anything strange about him, and thought that he couldn't stay here any longer, so he Putting the book in his arms, he quietly closed the door and went out.