embroidery

One thing has been delayed---to visit Mr. Guo.

So when we parted last time, the two made an appointment to meet at the riverside first tonight, and then drive to Mr. Guo's residence together.

Qingmo looked forward to the whole day, feeling ashamed and ashamed, ashamed that he had been out of the Tao Mansion for so many days, thinking about it all the time but never putting it into action, ashamed that he and Tao Cheng and Tao Che had the same teacher, but only He failed to grow into a good student.

Mr. Guo should not blame him, Qing Mo thought, but his own uncontrollable feelings were hard to calm down.

After lunch, I picked up two guests, one of whom was the oiran. She stirred tea and murmured, "It was really sad to be stabbed in the back by my sister, but looking around, no one could tell. "

Qing Mo listened to her chatting about a few cups of tea, and at the end the oiran asked, "Everyone calls you 'Mr.', may I ask what your name is?"

Qing Mo paused, he really hadn't thought about it, so he smiled lightly, "It's not expensive, you can call me a little 'Mr. Tao'."

The oiran covered her lips and lowered her eyes. After a while, she raised her hand and took out a jade hairpin from the exquisite bun, put it on the table, touched it lightly with her fingertips and pushed it to Qingmo, "Mr. Tao, the little girl forgot to bring money today, use it Come, can you?"

It's not good, Qingmo yelled in his heart that it's not good, he didn't hesitate at all, "No need, jade is precious, girl should keep it. We had a good chat, this time you just relax."

The jade hairpin was pushed back to her eyes again, Huakui's eyes were covered with a layer of sadness, and there was still a smile on her lips, "Then I will replenish it for you next time."

As the oiran walks forward, Qingmo heaves a sigh of relief. He pats his face, thinking that he is extremely charming. With such a face, he can win the favor of the flowery oiran. Could it be that he is lucky today?

Just as he was thinking, the door was pushed open again, and a young man dressed as a servant came in. He asked, "Is it a fortune teller?"

Qing Mo nodded and said yes, "What's the matter?"

"I'm from the inn across the street. There's a master Jia who invites you to come over. He's waiting in the private room."

Qing Mo was stunned, "Do you know which master it is?"

The boy stroked his chin, "If you read correctly, it should be the master of the Tao family."

In the private room of the inn, there were several plates of pastries and snacks on the table, and Mr. Tao leaned on the soft bed without saying a word.

Qingmo's whole body tensed up, for fear of revealing any flaws, he even breathed lightly and slowly, his head seemed to be full of doubts, but also seemed to be blank, with no prediction of what would happen next.

It was Mr. Tao who spoke first, and asked Qingmo what to call him, but after asking, he waved his hand, "Forget it, when you get out of this room, it's better not to remember anything."

Qing Mo nodded, looking like an honest person who never talks too much.

Master Tao said, "I heard that Mr. has a supernatural fortune-telling ability. We do business, we all pay attention to Fengshui and arithmetic, and we are always willing to listen to Mr.'s honest advice."

Qingmo's heart pounded, and he said a few words of humility hastily.

"I invite you to come today, sir. First, I want to calculate the afterlife of my wife and I. Second, I want to talk about my eldest son who has never met." Master Tao took a sip of tea. You read the joke."

Under the cover of the table, Qingmo's fingers tightly clutched the hem of his clothes, his heartbeat rang in his ears, beating, beating, beating, as if he was returning to Suzhou from Changzhou in a carriage when he was 17 years old. A sack of apples fell apart, and there was a sound of rounds hitting the car board one by one.

He asked Aunt Zhou, "I thought we would stay in Changzhou forever."

Aunt Zhou held his hand, feeling very emotional, "Master must have figured it out, it must be because Master is still thinking about you, after all...after all..."

Qing Mo was puzzled, "What happened after all?"

"After all, you've grown up too, and you'll be crowned weak in two years." Aunt Zhou sighed, wiped an apple with a towel and handed it to Qingmo, "Speaking of which, our master owes you."

The last sentence was mumbled too vaguely, Qingmo bit the apple, thought for a while, and didn't ask any further, he was full of joy, only looking forward to seeing Tao Cheng again.

But he didn't want to come back after a long journey, but what he saw was Second Grandma Qiao, who spoke icy words with a gentle face, making Aunt Zhou feel like being struck by lightning, and making Qingmo a servant of a servant.

Don't be true.

Qingmo thought, he raised his eyes to look at Master Tao, his chest trembled, if he had to recall carefully, he could really recall many details, Aunt Zhou's helplessness, Grandma Qiao's disgust, the maids' gossip, and Master Tao is special to him.

Qing Mo swallowed, and he heard his own hard voice, "Say it."

After a short moment of silence, Master Tao continued, "This brothel has been open for decades. I went there when I was young. It was not as prosperous as it is now, and it was just a small building with seven or eight floors."

Hearing a sigh suddenly, Master Tao raised his teacup to Qing Mo, "It's an old story, I have nothing to say in my heart, maybe it has nothing to do with Mr.'s arithmetic, you just listen to it as a story."

Qing Mo was still tense, and hurriedly responded, "It's okay, you can just do whatever you want."

He calmed down his shock with the tea, at least he didn't sweat, and leaned against the window again, ready to maintain his calm no matter what absurd stories he heard.

"I married Hua Ting, who was the oiran of the brothel at that time. There was a lot of trouble in the city. I didn't let anyone say anything about her. The marriage was done well, but it's a pity that she... didn't enjoy the good life for a year or so. Time didn't make it through, and I was left with only one child."

Master Tao sighed, "Closing the moon is ashamed of flowers, but unfortunately life is thinner than paper. Hua Ting was lying in the delivery room, and I didn't care whether it was clean or not. I knelt by the bed and watched over her. That scene... half of my body All soaked in blood, flowing from the bed to the ground, her face was pale, her body was so cold that she no longer looked like a living person..."

After another half hour, Qingmo raised his eyes slightly, and saw Master Tao's eyes closed, his lips trembling, and his face twitching slightly, as if he was enduring great pain.

"Hua Ting said that she has a good sister whom she worships in the brothel courtyard. She is not at ease. Let me marry her back. It will not only be able to accompany me for her, but also make her rest assured."

Qingmo really wanted to ask about that child, but he held back and said, "You agreed."

"I promised, Luanjiao will continue after one year, and she will be the Second Grandma Qiao today. I don't know if you have heard of it, sir?"

"Well, Tao's mansion is wealthy, and there is a virtuous wife who takes care of the parents' affairs. Everyone knows that Mr. Tao has a Second Grandma Qiao."

Master Tao smiled wryly and shook his head, "Not to mention how much I love the second lady, since Hua Ting left, no one could catch my eye at that time, it's the same... She has always resented that I didn't give her a marriage that was as ostentatious as Hua Ting, There are only a few horse-drawn carriages, and it is really a headache for her to take them out and scream every time she quarrels."

"When she came in, Qingmo was only one year old."

Hearing his name suddenly, Qing Mo grasped his thighs tightly, his chest vibrated to the point of shattering, he only dared to lower his eyes, for fear that the mixed emotions in his eyes would be seen by Master Tao and he would be suspicious.

It seems that what I no longer want to admit has finally become a fact.

He was a little panicked and could only think of Tao Cheng for a while.

Does Tao Cheng know?

Qingmo lost his mind for a few moments, then remembered something ridiculous. Not long ago, the oiran asked his surname, and he unceremoniously reported Tao Cheng as "Tao", asking himself how many times he had called this person "Xianggong" "It's not nonsense.

The absurdity and immorality that came in a flash.

Master Tao didn't know that his words would soon defeat the fortune teller on the opposite side, and said to himself, "Qing Mo is the child of me and Hua Ting, but I can't see him, and I think about others when I see things. In the pain, she didn't want to see the child one more time. Until Qiao Qing entered the door, she took Qingmo from the nanny, and after looking at it carefully for a while, she asked, is this the child she killed her sister? ?”

"It turned out that she knew a little bit about physiognomy. She said that the child was invincible to her parents, but she didn't dare to say anything more, so she found a fortune teller. The gentleman confirmed Qiao Qing's statement. Hua Ting was killed by her. The child is dead, and if I don't stay away from him, the more he grows up, the more he will take away my luck and kill me."

Qingmo opened her eyes wide and looked at Master Tao, trembling slightly.

Suddenly, he thought of Tao Cheng's confession to Tao Che in the teahouse. Could it be that the fortune teller had already been bought by Second Grandma Qiao?

Qingmo finally recovered his voice, he put down the empty teacup, and asked in a calm voice, "What will you do with Qingmo?"

Master Tao changed his posture, turned his face to the window, his eyes full of memories looked at the sky where the sun was gradually setting to the west.

"The master said, don't reuse it, don't be intimate. But after all, he is Hua Ting's child. Although I don't have any affection for him, I only resent him for killing his mother. If you want to say that he is allowed to fend for himself, that's too much. Absolutely not, so he gave it to his nanny to raise him, and lived in the servant's courtyard."

Qingmo didn't want to hear any more, he wanted to leave this private room quickly, without staying for a moment.

Just as he was about to speak, he was interrupted by Master Tao, "Before sending it, Qiao Qing stopped me and asked me something I had forgotten all the time. The loss of my wife made the whole house unhappy, and no one came to remind me to take care of the child. I should be careful about the name. I say that if you can’t reuse it, you’re light; a name."

This time, he grasped the gap tightly, Qingmo hugged his chest in a gesture, but actually pressed his hand on his heart, which was as uncomfortable as suffocation, he hurriedly said, "Before you said, one is to calculate the fate with Mrs. Hua Ting in the afterlife, and the other is to lighten up Mo...Young Master Mo's..."

Master Tao waved his hand casually, "Money will not miss you. It has been accumulated in my heart for so many years, and it has become bitter water. Let me pour it out today."

His wish hadn't come true, Qingmo wanted to get up and leave, he just wanted to jump into the lake to wake up his mind, maybe the incense on the table made him have such a strange dream.

Qingmo took in a long breath, then let it out slowly, a little wanting to laugh, I don't know if it was a wry smile or a mockery, the mask on his face was itchy slightly, usually at this time it would itch, used to not care, but today It was extremely unbearable.

He filled the teacup for himself, and listened to Master Tao continue to confide.

Hearing him say that he hugged the seven-year-old Qingmo, and was overwhelmed on the bed after only saying a few words; I heard him say that when Qingmo was 17 years old, Hua Tingtuo dreamed and told him that Qingmo didn't want to be in Changzhou, but wanted to be in Changzhou. When he came back to Suzhou, it was the first time since his death that he dreamed of the widow he missed every day. Naturally, he called Qingmo back non-stop; he said that he had several quarrels with Qiao Qing about this matter, and finally they each take a step back.

"A few months ago, I met that kid again, and I was very angry when I saw him embroidering. I didn't want to get bad luck the next day. The Changzhou orchard was flooded by heavy rains for days. Forget it. God is not good, so I can't complain. But the second lady got caught and found a handkerchief in my shirt, and I chased after her. I simply told her that I fell in love with a girl from a porridge shop, and I wanted to wait until she gave birth before mentioning it. "

Qing Mo was speechless, it turned out that that day was not as simple as Tao Che saw, and there was another reason for the quarrel.

"The quarrel was so fierce that day that even my youngest son was persuaded to persuade him to fight. Later, the second wife threatened Qingmo with the child in her stomach and allowed her to drive Qingmo out of Tao's house, so she stopped pestering her."

Qing Mo sighed softly, the story has come to the present, probably not far from liberation.He remembered that after reunion with Tao Cheng, he embraced on the willow tree and muttered that he got rid of Tao's mansion, and his heart was actually a little happy.

Now it is no longer a little bit, but a joy and joy that cannot be added.

Master Tao finally sighed, "Speaking of which, women's minds are also very scary. The second wife did not regard her as a sister like Hua Ting. The heart is like a snake and a scorpion."

The sky was full of fire and clouds, and the setting sun had already disappeared.

Qingmo's patience was about to run out, he was too lazy, and he didn't want to talk to Master Tao anymore, "After the story is told, I'll tell you the next one."

After finishing speaking, he pretended to flip through the miscellaneous books on the five elements and gossip, buried his head deeply, and his thoughts were in a mess.

Master Tao also seemed to have talked too much and felt tired, so he only drank his green tea one mouthful at a time, looking at Yunxu with unpredictable eyes.

"Master Tao and Mrs. Tao can renew their relationship. They haven't been able to grow old together in this life. They will still be husband and wife after reincarnation, but they will be together for a hundred years." Qing Mo's tone was flat, and he only wanted to please Master Tao, but he didn't want to take the money. Replied, "As for Qingmo...Eldest Prince, what do you want to count?"

Master Tao pondered, "Even if he can meet a good person after leaving the Tao Mansion, let's live a more comfortable life."

Something happened, Qing Mo asked, "Don't you want to recognize him?"

"He killed his mother. For this alone, it is impossible for me to love him. As I get older, the resentment gradually fades away, but that's all."

Qing Mo nodded, and said in his heart, you are asking for trouble if you want to admit it, and I have no love for you as my own father.

Qing Mo closed the book, put it in a ragged pocket, and said, "You can meet good people and live a comfortable life, don't worry."

Master Tao seemed to be really relieved, he took out the bank note from his lapel, and took it back before handing it to Qing Mo, "Ask again."

Qingmo managed to maintain her majestic and irritable mood, and scratched the edge of the mask with her fingers, fearing that her mouth would be abusive, so she just said "um".

But I didn't want Master Tao to say something shocking, "Some time ago, my eldest son took a dumb girl by the hand and introduced me as his favorite person. That girl looks more beautiful than the girl from the porridge shop, almost the same."

Lightly creepy.

Master Tao said leisurely, "Can you figure out the marriage between her and my eldest son? Will they get married in the end?"