Dressed as an actor in the Qing Dynasty

Now the snow outside has melted, and the wind is not cold.

In the carved wing room on the second floor of the backyard of the West Temple Building, it was as quiet as ever, and there were still two people sitting facing each other, one in a silver and white robe, and the other in an emerald green robe.

Tea is being roasted on the small stove. It is the best Tieguanyin, and the fragrance of the tea is refreshing.

The cold air from going out on the two of them before has dissipated a little, and now their bodies have warmed up. Hua Jingzhao's slender fingers playfully caressed the wall of the blue and white porcelain tea bowl, and began to gossip about the nearest gossip in the capital as soon as they entered the door.

Su Qingchi didn't answer, just lowered his head and sipped the tea, carefully picked out a few pieces and listened.

"Qiu Chengyuan wants to marry the Qin family?"

"Well, I heard that Qiu Chengyuan will take his son to the Qin family to propose marriage next month." Hua Jingzhao poured a cup of tea with a pot, lowered his head and sniffed it, swayed leisurely, and the corner of his mouth curled up, "This is Qiu Chengyuan's idea." Fortunately, the next pair of children have become pawns in his hands."

Su Qingchi didn't answer his words, but said calmly, "Qiu Zhongwen didn't say anything?"

"So what, can he turn against his father?" Hua Jingzhao put down the teacup, "However, the Qiu family has not been peaceful these days, let alone Qiu Zhongwen has no intention of Qin Simin. I added to the confusion, and said that Qiu Ling'er, the lady of the Qiu family who has always been well-educated, was caught in a private tryst with another man a few days ago, and the matter got to Qiu Chengyuan's ears, and Qiu Chengyuan was so angry that he almost didn't touch the family law."

Su Qingchi didn't speak, Hua Jingzhao glanced at him, thought for a while and said, "Perhaps I'm afraid that there will be many dreams in the night, Qiu Chengyuan has gone to the Shangfu today..."

Hua Jingzhao didn't need to say much, Su Qingchi already understood the meaning of his words, Qiu Chengyuan went here for no other reason than to set the wedding date as soon as possible.

Sure enough, within a few days, inside and outside the capital, the marriage of the Shang and Qiu families was widely rumored.

There was no news about the upstairs and downstairs of the West Temple, even if some ignorant opera singer used it as an after-dinner conversation, if he was stared at by others and pointed upstairs, he would immediately understand it and never mention it again.

Su Qingchi still trained the actors in the building every day. Recently, a few young children had entered the building, and they all looked like they had top-notch voices. Su Qingchi was quite satisfied, so he chose three of them. , personally taught them how to sing, and left the rest to Hua Jingzhao.

So the Xici Building, which was once lively, is now full of babbling and babbling. Every morning, a row of children stood in the yard, hanging their legs, practicing their voices, and playing with their sleeves. Shuixiu, and some children who have already learned it, play with each other holding flower guns.

It was steaming outside the yard, and the aroma of buns and steamed buns blew in, and the whole yard was foggy, making every child salivate.

When the time came, and Su Qingchi spoke, these little opera singers rushed into the inner hall, surrounded the two wooden tables tightly, pouted their buttocks to grab the white flour buns in the wooden basket in the middle of the table, and the head of the tea house, Uncle Chen, Working between the two tables, carrying buckets and ladles, filled each child with hot thick soybean milk for the night.

A group of children have practiced opera so far that their chests are stuck to their backs, and they are scrambling for food like hungry ghosts.

Su Qingchi never treated them badly in terms of food, three meals a day, although not very good, can always keep them full, and occasionally when he is in a good mood, he will order some hot dishes and soups from the nearby restaurants to give these boys a tooth offering.

It's not that Su Qingchi is so generous, but to be honest, Su Qingchi is the most stingy in this building. He does this because he thinks it's an eyesore to see a group of sallow, skinny, skinny boys, so he often dips them in some meat. Oil.

Since Su Baoer ran out that day and came back with mud and blood on his hands, he has never appeared in the West Temple Building or the courtyard. If he didn't come, Su Qingchi would not treat him as such.

Knowing what he was doing, Su Qingchi didn't say a word of comfort to him.

Now that the courtyard is empty, Liu Guan'er was sent to a friend by Hua Jingzhao, and asked him to take care of it for a while, and then asked someone to set up a house in a secluded place in the capital, and put it in front of the house. In the next shop, when everything was ready, Liu Guan'er was sent there. The shopkeepers in the shop were all invited, and Liu Guan'er only had to look after the shop and keep accounts for him.

Su Qingchi occasionally felt noisy, so he went back to the courtyard to sleep, Hua Jingzhao accompanied him every day, and the two were inseparable.

The two families of Shangqiu finally chose the auspicious day for the zodiac. The two families have been friends for several generations. As early as decades ago, the two families intended to marry. Eight boxes and ten boxes filled with geng stickers, jewellery, cattle and sheep silks and satins have been sent to Qiu's house.

The merchant wrote the date on the Longfeng post, and sent red dates, peanuts, longan, chestnuts and other happy fruits along with the post, and packed more than a dozen large boxes of pork and lamb legs, yams, etc., and sent them to the Qiu family. Also returned the gift box.

This time of happiness and busyness, the marriage of the two families has already been settled, and everything only needs to wait for the young master of the merchant to go to the Qiu Mansion to welcome the relatives in three months.

The rumors of the two marriages have long spread outside, and each one doesn't say that a pair of beautiful women is a match made in heaven. Su Qingchi is drinking tea in the teahouse upstairs, and he doesn't react much to these words.

Unexpectedly, the tea in his hand was gently picked up by Hua Jingzhao, Su Qingchi raised his eyes, "What are you doing?"

"Is this tea so good?" Hua Jingzhao glanced at the two bottomless teapots beside him, smiled, then shook the cup in his hand, saw a few pieces of broken tea leaves floating in it, and couldn't help asking, "How does the tea dregs taste? "

Su Qingchi was slightly embarrassed, and in just a moment, he recovered his usual cold expression, turned his head and looked out the window.

Hua Jingzhao shrugged, and drank the tea in the cup together with the pieces of broken tea leaves in one gulp, then smacked his lips, "Bitter, astringent."

Su Qingchi glanced at him, and was about to say something, when Hua Jingzhao suddenly signaled him to look downstairs with his eyes, Su Qingchi looked down following his line of sight, only to see a woman wearing a bamboo hat hurried past With several layers of gauze, she couldn't see the other person's face clearly, but Su Qingchi had some impression of this figure, especially the purple clothes on that person's body and the string of tiny silver bells between them. After a little thought, Su Qingchi recalled It reminded her that the woman was Ziyan, Qiu Linger's personal servant girl.

"Seeing her hurried appearance, I guess she is going to deliver a letter for her lady."

"You mean Fan Li?"

Hua Jingzhao played with the folding fan with great interest, "It seems that Qiu Ling'er was really moved, haha."

Su Qingchi frowned slightly, lowered his head to think about something, Hua Jingzhao put down his fan, "Although this Fan Li has a bit of a romantic reputation, he may not treat her sincerely, but..."

Hua Jingzhao paused for a moment, "I wanted to put this matter aside, but the Qiu family and the Fan family have had a close relationship during this period of time, I don't think this may be what Qiu Chengyuan meant, it's probably because Qiu Zhongwen secretly co-operated with him without telling his father. If it's about his sister and Fan Li's relationship with the Fan family, that's fine, if it's something else."

Hua Jingzhao frowned and thought for a while, "Let me observe this matter for a few more days. At present, I really can't figure out what kind of medicine he sells in his gourd."

After sitting for a while, the two put a few silver coins on the table and left the teahouse together.

The most talked about in the streets and alleys is still the marriage between the two families in the capital.

Hua Jingzhao waved his fan and pulled Su Qingchi to stand in front of a stall for a while, then Hua Jingzhao handed him a doughnut, Su Qingchi was slightly taken aback, regained his senses, took the doughnut and played with it in his hand.

Hua Jingzhao knew that he was in a trance, so he didn't bother him. The two walked for a while, and the West Temple Tower could be seen in front of them. Hua Jingzhao said, "I didn't know you believed him so much."

"What?" Su Qingchi turned his head, his eyes were a little confused.

Hua Jingzhao smiled helplessly, "I ask what you want to eat tonight."

"Oh, let's have a pot of Biluochun."

Hua Jingzhao paused for a moment, suddenly felt it was funny, this person clearly hasn't recovered yet.But then he could only sigh. This person seems to be careless about everything, and he is the most pure-hearted and ascetic person. How can others know that half of this person's exquisite heart has been occupied by love, otherwise, how could there be such a thing? The lingering passion with another man in the alley at night?

As cold as him, still unable to escape a word of love.

In the middle of the night when the dew was heavy, Hua Jingzhao suddenly heard someone knocking on the door, and couldn't help wondering who else was knocking on the door in the middle of the night. He put on his clothes and got up, lit the lamp, and went to open the door. He was slightly surprised to see someone coming.

Su Qingchi was only wearing silk obscene clothes, his forehead was covered with sweat, and his face was pale. Hua Jingzhao stretched out his hand and pulled him in. Between the tentacles, there was wetness, which turned out to be dense sweat.

"What happened?" Hua Jingzhao quickly pulled off the quilt and put it on him, and found him a set of clean obscene clothes.

"I'm turning my back, you put it on now, don't freeze."

Su Qingchi didn't refuse, probably also sensed the coldness all over his body, shivered, and took it.

When Hua Jingzhao heard the slight sounds behind him, he felt that his breathing was unsteady, he couldn't help but smiled wryly, tilted his head slightly, and saw the figure of the man cast on the flower window on the wall under the light, with a thin waist and narrow hips, The figure is well-proportioned, but it is indescribably romantic.

There was a slight cold wind blowing in, the candlelight swayed, and even the figure of the man swayed along with it. Hua Jingzhao's mind was disturbed, and he got up in a daze, only clenched his fists, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then stopped his restlessness Uncertain mind.

Fang Su Qingchi had already changed his clothes, "It's fine."

Hua Jingzhao turned around, his face was as usual, and he couldn't see a trace of the lustful thoughts just now.

"Can't sleep?" Hua Jingzhao saw that Su Qingchi's complexion was still pale, so he picked up the pot and wanted to pour a cup of hot tea to warm him up. When the tea was poured into the cup, he remembered that the tea was already cold.

Su Qingchi shook his head and took the herbal tea, "The herbal tea is just right, so there's no need to go downstairs to find hot water."

Hua Jingzhao was worried that he drank too much, so he put the teapot aside, and sat down beside Su Qingchi. He was not in a hurry to ask Su Qingchi why he was looking for him so late, but just sat and watched him quietly.

Taking a sip of herbal tea, Su Qingchi shuddered slightly, then pulled up the quilt, saw Hua Jingzhao was looking at him, and couldn't help saying, "It's disturbing your sleep."

Hua Jingzhao said with a smile, "I couldn't fall asleep, I wanted to drink to the moon, but I regretted that I didn't have a beautiful woman to accompany me, so I gave up. It's good that you came."

After finishing speaking, he fetched a jug of wine, took two Bito wine glasses, and poured a glass for himself and Su Qingchi respectively.The clear wine has a light luster in the blue jade glass, and there is a faint aroma of wine, not strong, but attractive.

"You have hidden good wine."

"Hehe, didn't this come out? Apricot wine made from flowers, the taste is mellow and sweet, the alcohol is not strong, but intoxicating."

The two had a few drinks together, but no one mentioned the reason why Su Qingchi locked Hua Jingzhao's door so late.

The two huddled together and drank without saying much. It seemed that Su Qingchi came here in the middle of the night just to have a few glasses of fine wine with him.

The night was getting darker, and the candles in the candlesticks were almost burnt out.

Hua Jingzhao is not afraid of the cold, unlike Su Qingchi who starts to light the stove in late autumn, the stove in the room burns until early spring, Hua Jingzhao only lights a stove in the coldest days of mid-winter, and after those few days, the stove will be turned on early. The ground has been withdrawn, and now the room is cold and cold, even if Hua Jingzhao can bear it, Su Qingchi can't bear it either.

So the two simply went to bed.

Su Qingchi leaned against the head of the bed, his cheeks were slightly flushed from drinking just now, "I had a dream earlier."

He smiled slightly, tilted his head and leaned on Hua Jingzhao's shoulder, without a trace of defense. Maybe it wasn't because of relying on it, but because he was really weak, he leaned on the bed and slid onto his shoulder, "In the dream, Chengde got married, and sent someone to send him a gift." The big red wedding invitation was given to me, the whole business mansion was very lively, red lanterns were hung all over Beijing city, there were firecrackers and gongs and drums inside the business mansion, but outside the gate of the business mansion was very deserted, the people all over the city No more, everyone went to the Shangfu to have a wedding, and I was the only one."

Su Qingchi swallowed, his eyes were a little distracted, "I stood outside the door alone, and Chengde told me to wait for him, so I stood there and waited. After waiting for three days and three nights, the door finally opened. He was dressed in red The groom’s official robe came out, and it looked tight, he stretched out his hand to me, I held his, he pulled me in, and said he had good news to tell me.”

He smiled meaninglessly, "Then I saw a woman standing in the door with a child in her arms, Chengde was full of joy, took my hand and said Qingchi, look, this is my son. Then he took the child into my arms and asked me to see his son and see what a good name to name him. I took it in a daze, and then the child suddenly opened his eyes, and I was startled. As soon as I let go, the child suddenly fell to the ground, turning into a pool of blood, Chengde and that woman strangled my neck and asked me to pay for my life... to pay for my life..."

Hua Jingzhao turned to look at him, Su Qingchi was leaning on his shoulder, already asleep, with a drop of clear night dripping from the corner of his eyes.

With a wry smile on his lips, Hua Jingzhao tucked up the corner of the quilt for him, "If you weren't drunk, wouldn't these words rot in your stomach?"

The man leaned against his arms, already fast asleep, how could he answer his words?

Hua Jingzhao stretched out his hand to caress the thin lips of that person, saying that people with thin lips are cold in nature, if this is the case, then it will be fine.

Leaning over and bowing his head, his four lips almost touched, but he paused again.

"Forget it, go to sleep."