great mandate

The day Luo Jinyu was released from prison was the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

The sky is falling with goose feathers and heavy snow, one after another; the winter wind is biting on people's faces, like a sharp blade.

Luo Jinyu was only wearing a white thin shirt, as if she didn't know the cold, her face was calm, her head was covered with wind and snow, and she walked slowly through the streets and alleys.

In the end, he stopped in front of a high court mansion, looked up at the word "Shen Mansion" written on the plaque, looked away, lowered his head, and carefully patted the thick snow off his body, even The stains on the cloth shoes were also cleaned, and then he walked up the steps and went to the gate, but he didn't knock on the door.

He just turned around and stood under the eaves, silently watching the endless snow.

After about half an hour, the Shen residence opened the door, and a tall slender man came out.

This man has a handsome face, which is different from ordinary people, with phoenix eyes, high nose, thin lips and jade face, with a haughty expression, wearing a treasure hat with red ears, and a red fur with thousands of gold, like a cluster of rich and noble flowers blooming in the world.

As soon as the man stepped over the threshold, he immediately noticed that there was a person standing under the eaves, so he turned his head to look, his eyes were extremely sharp.

——Then, he was taken aback.

But the man quickly came back to his senses, regained his defiant appearance, looked away, and went down the steps without asking why the other party came.

"Shen Wuji."

Luo Jinyu called him.

Shen Wuji stopped, exhaled a white breath lightly, stood at the entrance of the steps, turned to look at Luo Jinyu, suddenly laughed - but the smile was extremely false - and asked: "Hey, why is Mr. Luo so downcast? "

Shen Wuji is twenty-one years old, but his voice is as clear as a boy's, and slightly thinner, unlike ordinary adult men.

All because, he is not a "man" with all beards and tails.

He is the eunuch in charge of the rites supervisor, an eunuch who was castrated when he was young.

Shen Wuji's tone was provocative, but Luo Jinyu's expression remained unchanged, and he replied calmly: "I just came out of prison, I haven't changed my clothes, I'm rude."

Shen Wuji sneered and said: "I didn't ask you this. I was asking Mr. Luo, why did you step on the steps of me as an eunuch? Mr. Luo's words that day are still in my ears, but I am an eunuch with no roots and beards, neither yin nor yang , ruthless and merciless, cloudy and sunny, flattering and charming, the rooster is the morning..."

Luo Jinyu waited for him to finish speaking, and said in a calm tone: "There is no 'rooster morning', you should not use this word. I only say that you are jealous, narrow-minded, ill-informed, and arty, which is ridiculous."

"..."

Shen Wuji's pretty face twisted for a while, he was short of breath, staring fixedly at Luo Jinyu, as if he wanted to cut this person to pieces on the spot.

But Shen Wuji finally did not do so.

He finally turned his resentment into a sneer, he waved his sleeves, and was about to leave.

"Shen Wuji."

Luo Jinyu called him again.

Shen Wuji stopped again, turned his head, frowned and stared at him: "What's the matter with you!"

Luo Jinyu said, "I apologize to you."

Shen Wuji was startled, turned around, and looked at him.

"Although you have wronged others a lot," Luo Jinyu said, "but you didn't make trouble when I was in trouble, and even collected my mother's body and buried my grandparents. I want to thank you."

"..." Shen Wuji didn't hear the good ones, only heard the bad ones, and gritted his teeth, "What do you mean 'I have a lot of bad things about others'?"

Luo Jinyu didn't answer his question, and continued: "Besides thanking you, I have something else to ask."

Shen Wuji opened his eyes slightly, and said in disbelief: "You still have something to ask for? When will I promise you that you can ask me for something?"

Luo Jinyu said: "My mother and grandparents are dead, I have no other relatives, and I am homeless. I have been in prison, I have no chance of success, I am poor, and I have no hope of starting a family. Therefore, I want to enter your house Stay for a while."

"..." Shen Wuji was silent for a moment, and asked, "Have you been beaten out of your mind in prison? I have a grudge against you, and now you are down and out, let me take you in?"

Luo Jinyu said: "If you still have grievances, you can take this opportunity to torture me."

Shen Wuji: "..."

Luo Jinyu said: "At the beginning, I laughed at you, everyone on the road knew about it, and you annoyed me and hated me because of it. Now that I'm down and out, I'm in your house, and I'm your slave. How can you listen to me? Didn't you just vent your anger?"

Shen Wuji frowned again, thought for a while vigilantly, and asked, "What's your purpose? Our family doesn't believe it, you just have nowhere to go."

"If I say, I just want to make you feel bad, can you believe it?" Luo Jinyu said, "I want to repay the kindness of burying my mother and grandparents."

Shen Wuji was startled, and asked: "Just for this?"

"Yes." Luo Jinyu said, "That's why."

Shen Wuji hesitated, and after a while, he said coyly: "Our family didn't bury them for you..."

Luo Jinyu said frankly: "I know that my father-in-law admires me, and he treats my family so kindly just now, so there is no need for father-in-law to justify in vain."

Shen Wuji: "..."

He suddenly turned red, turned into anger, and scolded, "You are talking nonsense! Our family is just—just..."

"My father-in-law spends a lot of money to build the Luoshen Pavilion, make friends with students, hold open talks, and people give me gold and silver gifts every day. Is it not because you admire me, but because you ask me to comment on your poems?" Luo Jinyu asked.

Shen Wuji: "..."

He straightened his neck, gritted his teeth and said, "Yes, our family is just arty!"

Luo Jinyu asked: "The Fu that my father-in-law asked me to appreciate is full of thoughts of spring and courtship. Is it just a coincidence?"

Shen Wuji: "..."

His face was flushed, even brighter than the red tassels on his cheeks, and he clenched his fists and shouted, "Luo Jinyu, get out of here!"

It was not Luo Jinyu who "rolled" in the end, but Shen Wuji.

After Shen Wuji said that, seeing that Luo Jinyu didn't roll away, he became more and more annoyed, but there was nothing he could do, so he gave him a hard look, shook his sleeves vigorously, strode down the steps, and got on the horse.

Luo Jinyu still stood there, silently watching Shen Wuji ride away on his horse, and silently turned his gaze back to the sky where the heavy snow was coming.

Just like him when he was just released from prison two hours ago.

Two hours ago, the sky was darker than it is now, and Luo Jinyu was released from the prison at this time.

Chinese New Year is approaching, people don't want to be exposed to bad luck, and usually stay far away from this prison, and walk around the road, especially at this time in the early morning, it is even more quiet here.There was a thick layer of snow on the road, so white and clean that there were no footprints.

Luo Jinyu stood at the door of the prison, wearing only simple single clothes, and her long black hair was simply tied up with a coarse cloth. She looked up at the falling snowflakes indifferently.

He has a handsome appearance, and when he is not smiling, there is a frown at the corners of his eyes and brows.

Luo Jinyu used to be a well-known talent from a humble family in the capital. He was upright and strong, offended someone, and ended up in prison, where he was imprisoned for three years.

The widowed mother who depended on each other avenged his grievances, and bumped her head to death in front of the gate of Yingtian Mansion, but did not get her son's innocence.

If the new sage hadn't ascended the throne and pardoned the world, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to get out of prison for a while.

Luo Jinyu looked at Xue for a while, then slowly looked away, looked down at the steps, and walked down.

He stepped on a footprint in the snow, walked a hundred steps, stopped suddenly, looked back at the footprints on the road when he came, and thought of his childhood.

When he was young, Luo Jinyu's mother, Lian'er, was weak, but she wanted to teach him to study hard, so she let him go to private school even in heavy snow days, but she led him there herself.

She walked in front, one step at a time, so that he could step on her footprints and avoid falling into the snow.

Luo Jinyu remembered that there was a lot of snow that day, just like now, the sky was still dark and pitch black.

The mother lifted the lantern upside down, illuminating the path in front of Luo Jinyu.She faced the darkness and walked ahead, with one foot deep and the other shallow.

Luo Jinyu stepped on her footprints, every step was extremely smooth.

Along the way, she didn't speak, neither did he, and the two walked in silence like this.

When I walked outside the private school, it was still early, the sky was still not bright, and the door had not yet opened.

Mother didn't dare to knock on the door to disturb Mr.'s sleep, so she let Luo Jinyu wait outside the door in the snow, while she hurried back to the shop along the original road to make today's breakfast - if she was late, she would lose a lot of copper coins for the day, and even more She would neglect regular customers, she dared not, and could not.The two mothers and sons live on this meager income.

Although the husband cherishes Luo Jinyu's eagerness to learn and the child can be taught, he has been exempted from his training, but she insists on buying paper, pen and ink by herself.

Luo Jinyu was short at that time, standing at the gate of the private school, she was not as tall as the stone lion next to her.

He was wearing the padded cloak his mother made for him, and the pointed hat on top of the cloak. Holding the homework he wrote yesterday, he looked at the back of his mother leaving in the wind and snow, and couldn't help calling out in a low voice: "Mother Be careful on the return journey!"

His mother stopped, looked back at him, and smiled softly, but immediately made a silent gesture to him, lest his noise would disturb other people's sleep.

His mother used to teach him strict etiquette, not to talk too much, and not to speak loudly.

Luo Jinyu quickly covered her mouth.

Mother smiled again, turned around, and continued walking back.

Luo Jinyu just watched her thin figure gradually disappear into the wind and snow.

When the husband came to open the door, he saw Luo Jinyu standing respectfully by the door, he couldn't help being shocked, he hurriedly led him in, let him into the room to keep warm, and blamed him for not taking care of his body.

Luo Jinyu was about to freeze, but she was not in a hurry to enter the house. Instead, she stopped outside the main hall door, took off her cloak, shook the snow all over her body to the side of the steps, cleaned her shoes, and then went in , bowed to the gentleman, and said in a childish voice: "Don't dare to disturb the gentleman's sleep."

The gentleman saw that although he was still young, he behaved politely and had a gentlemanly and Confucian style. He was even more pleased in his heart, but he said: "I don't know how to be flexible, and it's not polite. You are young and weak. If you freeze up, don't you?" Delay in homework, and end up in an unrighteous place?"

Luo Jinyu nodded and said, "Students don't care."

"Go, change your clothes, shoes and socks." The master called the little boy, and ordered the boy to take Luo Jinyu to the back hall to change his clothes, shoes and socks, and then brought him hot soup to drink, and Luo Jinyu's body gradually recovered.

Holding the hot soup in his hand, he sat obediently at the table to eat while listening to his husband's morning reading.

"Tai Shigong, Niu Ma Zou, Sima Qian, pay homage to the words again... The servant heard it: 'Those who cultivate themselves are the home of wisdom; those who love to give are the end of benevolence; those who take and give are the symbol of righteousness; Also; those who establish a name are the ultimate in action.' Scholars have these five, and then they can be entrusted to the world and listed among the gentlemen...."*

The gentleman's voice is loud, his recitation is smooth, cadenced and impassioned.