Tanhualang

Kneeling quietly on the ground, there was no answer for a long time.

He still held two chess pieces in his palms, and the chess pieces were pressed against his palms, but he didn't feel any pain at all, his eyes stared blankly at the ground, and he couldn't help but think of the day in Shangyuan, when he parted from Zhao Heng in the carriage, Zhao Heng stared at his look.

... He had never seen Zhao Heng look so sad, but now, he was forced to pick up a knife and stab him in the heart again.

Shen Jing slowly closed her eyes, deeply regretting that rainstorm night half a year ago, why did she soften her heart for a moment and compromised with Zhao Heng?It is only because of the momentary weakness at that moment that I have to suffer the pain of today's Ling Chi!

"...The minister leads the decree to thank you."

"Okay." Zhao Du heard his answer, responded, and raised his voice again, "Zheng Man, come in."

Zheng Man pushed the door open and silently walked to Shen Jing's side: "Your Majesty."

"Bring the roster and show it to Mr. Shen."

"Yes." Zheng Man responded, took out a thin booklet from his arms, and handed it to Shen Jing with both hands, "Master Shen, this is the age-appropriate daughter of several ministers in the court."

Shen Jing kowtowed again, slowly raised her head, took the roster with both hands, knelt down and kowtowed again.

"I ordered Zheng Man to carefully search for women of the right age among the clan and officials. Take a closer look." Zhao Du sat on the chair, showing a tired look, "Which one did you choose, or the one that is not in the booklet?" , tell me, and I will give you a marriage right away."

After a pause, I added another sentence: "Shen Qing, I know this is wronging you. But this matter is of great importance, and it should be sooner rather than later. You should think carefully about it."

Shen Jing held the booklet, lowered her eyes and replied: "...I understand. I will follow the will of the Holy One."

As soon as the voice fell, there was movement in the yard.Zheng Man opened a gap in the door, looked at it with his head, turned around again, and said with a soft smile: "My lord, Mrs. Shen's righteous sister and nephew are back."

"Really." Zhao Du smiled and pulled himself together, "Master Shen's relatives are inconvenient to meet each other due to internal and external differences. Let's bring the child in to meet."

Zheng Man went out in response: "Yes."

Shen Jing heard the words and came back to her senses, kowtowed again, and begged in a low voice: "My lord...my nephew is young and has never seen the world, so I'm afraid I'll offend my lord..."

Before the words were finished, Zheng Man led Xiaozhou in.

Pan Xiaozhou stood at the door, looked in timidly, first saw Zhao Du, then saw Shen Jing kneeling on the ground, his eyes were filled with surprise and puzzlement, he moved two steps towards Shen Jing, and looked at Zhao Du again, a little scared He didn't dare to go any further, and there was Zheng Man standing behind him, so he had to stand on the ground and whispered: "...uncle."

Shen Jing turned her head, stretched out her hand to him, and coaxed softly: "Xiao Zhou, come to uncle."

Pan Xiaozhou hesitated for a while, then took small steps and slowly moved to Shen Jing.Shen Jing pulled him and coaxed him softly: "Hey, kneel down and kowtow to the Holy One to say hello."

Only then did Pan Xiaozhou hesitate, followed Shen Jing's instruction, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, looked up at Zhao Du, and whispered, "Hello, Grandpa."

Zhao Du's expression froze for a moment, and then he became bitter: "You are about the same age as Ming'er Juan'er, and you actually called me Grandpa? Come, come here."

Xiao Zhou looked up at him, then buried her head in Shen Jing's arms, refusing to come out no matter how she screamed.

"This child is delicate and cute, and I really like it." Zhao Du didn't force it, and took off a bead string from his wrist with a smile, raised his head and waved to Zheng Man: "Give it a reward."

Zheng Man responded, stepped forward to take the beads, and handed them to Xiao Zhou's arms; Xiao Zhou refused to accept them, so Shen Jing took them for him, and coaxed Xiao Zhou: "Grandpa sent a gift, Xiao Zhou kowtowed to thank you."

"That's all." Zhao Du waved his hand, "The child is still young, don't be scared. Zheng Man, take the child out and go find his mother."

Zheng Man went out with the boat in his arms.

Zhao Du paused, softened his voice, and said to Shen Jing: "Shen Jing, I know that this has wronged you."

Shen Jing lowered her eyes and gave a short laugh: "...I dare not."

Zhao Du glanced at him, stood up, and let out a long sigh: "But since you have family and relatives by your side, you must understand my painstaking efforts. For Ah Heng, I hope his future journey will be smoother and more stable. Compared with the road I used to walk, it is a little less difficult."

"Think about it carefully, and call me back in three days." He said as he walked out, "There's no need to come and see you off."

Shen Jing was still kneeling on the ground holding the thin roster.

I don't know how long I knelt for, until it was dark, Cao Xiaoyu came in and asked him to eat, and helped him up in surprise and panic, and he staggered up from the ground.

"What's the matter?" Cao Xiaoyu looked at Shen Jing's expression, touched his cold hand, and felt distressed all over his face, "It's such a cold day, Ah Jing, why are you kneeling on the ground all the time? You can't kneel if you broke your leg. what to do!"

As she spoke, she dragged Shen Jing back to her room, and turned her head to tell Xiao Meng: "Go to the kitchen and get some soup."

Only then did Shen Jing regain her senses, tucked the roster into her sleeve, and staggered towards her room, while turning her head to Cao Xiaoyu and forced a smile: "Eldest sister, it's all right."

"You're young, so you don't know how powerful you are." Cao Xiaoyu felt distressed, seeing that tears were about to fall, went into the room, pushed him to lie down on the bed, "How did you get there back then, Brother Pan? At first, I thought it was because I choked on water, He himself said it was all right, so why didn't he just go there? Why don't you know how to cherish yourself? "

While talking, Xiao Meng came in with Mrs. Tang in his arms.Cao Xiaoyu pulled back the quilt to cover Shen Jing, stuffed Mrs. Tang into his arms through the quilt, and brought hot tea to his mouth: "Drink some hot tea. When you feel hot, get up and eat."

"Understood. Sister, I'm fine. I'll just rest for a while. Don't worry." Shen Jing persuaded, "I'm not hungry, you go eat first, don't wait for me. I'm a little tired and want to take a rest."

Seeing his expression, Cao Xiaoyu didn't dare to persuade him any more, she just brought the mattress next to him and covered him with another layer, then turned around and said, "You should rest."

When she went out, the room fell silent.

After sitting silently for a while, he took his hand out of the quilt, put it into his sleeve, groped for a long time, pulled out the roster, opened it, and looked at it page by page.

Shen Jing flipped through it a little, and saw that there were twelve ladies recorded in the roster, each page of the roster was a girl's name, and it also recorded age and affiliation, who were the parents, and how many people were in the family.

It's hard for Zheng Man to bother, these twelve women are either clan women or daughters of ministers, all of them are of high status.

Shen Jing put down the roster and extinguished the candlestick by the bed.

In the darkness, he slowly closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of endless exhaustion.

Tossed and turned all night, the next day, Shen Jing got up early in the morning and went to work again.

After a busy day, at dusk, just after coming out of the Imperial Academy, I saw a young eunuch waiting outside: "Master Shen, right? Manager Zheng sent me to Master Shen, did you hear back about that matter?"

Shen Jing was taken aback by the question, and cupped her hands at him: "Please go back to Mr. Zheng, just say that I haven't thought it through yet."

Hearing the words, the little eunuch saluted, turned around and left in a hurry.

Shen Jing watched the other party go away, and then hesitantly headed home towards the sunset.

Originally two or three quarter of an hour's journey, he walked for almost an hour before returning home.

Cao Xiaoyu had already prepared dinner, and just came out of the kitchen. Seeing him coming back, she greeted him with a smile, "Are you back? General Xi sent two fresh fish yesterday, and today I stewed a pot of fish soup. Xiaozhou is waiting for you." , Ah Jing quickly changed her clothes, and then came over to have some soup."

Shen Jing stood on the porch, saw Xiao Meng was watering the flowers in the yard with Xiao Meng, waved and called: "Xiao Meng, wash Xiao Zhou's hands, take him to eat first."

Then he turned around, walked to the door of the kitchen, and said to Cao Xiaoyu who was busy: "Eldest sister, come with me. I have two words, I want to talk to you."

Cao Xiaoyu turned around and responded: "What's the matter? I just warmed up the fish soup, Ah Jing, let's talk about it after we eat it?"

Shen Jing paused, then nodded: "...that's fine."

The fish soup was brought to the table, and the whole family sat down neatly. Cao Xiaoyu first filled the soup and rice for Shen Jing, then filled the rice for Xiao Zhou and Xiao Mengdu in turn, and finally hugged Xiao Zhou in his arms: "Okay , eat."

After An Wen finished her meal, Shen Jing put down the bowl and chopsticks and stood up: "Sister, I'll wait for you in the study."

Cao Xiaoyu responded, took Xiaomeng to clean up the dishes, handed the boat to Xiaomeng to coax, and then hurried to the study.

The candles in the study were flickering, and the lamp oil flowed down the table under the candlesticks, staring at the candles silently, but it seemed as if they couldn't see them, and they were just in a daze.

Cao Xiaoyu looked at him and sighed, picked up the scissors under the lamp and cut off the wick: "Ah Jing?"

Shen Jing came back to her senses, raised her head and smiled, then lowered her eyes: "...Elder sister, sit down."

"If you have anything to say, just say it, and you're not an outsider." Cao Xiaoyu sat down opposite him and looked at him, tentatively saying, "Look at your troubled look, is it me and Xiaozhou that are causing you any trouble ?”

Shen Jing smiled: "That's not the case."

After Shen Jing finished speaking, she hesitated for a moment, then raised her head again, looked at Cao Xiaoyu, hesitated a few times, and then asked: "...Elder sister, you once said that you don't want to remarry... Is it true that you intend to do so?"

Cao Xiaoyu was taken aback for a moment, and couldn't help but smiled wryly, "Ah Jing, I really don't want to marry again."

Shen Jing paused, and then said: "After being selected as a Jinshi last year, at the Thanksgiving Banquet, the current emperor said that he would bestow a marriage for me... Elder sister should have heard of this matter, right?"

Cao Xiaoyu nodded: "I heard about it."

She had also asked Xi Wei insinuatingly before, why Shen Jing had never been married, and Xi Wei told him about the marriage bestowed by the Holy Majesty.

"The guest who came to our house yesterday is now the Holy One." Shen Jing said softly, "He came to tell me...he wants to give me a marriage."

After finishing speaking, Shen Jing ignored Cao Xiaoyu's shocked gaze, got up and knelt down in front of her: "...Eldest sister, I want to ask you one thing."