Looking for plums under the moon

Ling Guyue stayed in Shuying Building for a few days, sometimes Lin Jue would invite him to Qingyuxuan to discuss some matters, and most of the time, he would hang out in the back garden.

Occasionally, you will encounter green kites picking flowers in the garden.

The girl's skirt swings lightly, shuttles among the flowers, the jade ring around her waist makes a crisp sound, and holds a small bamboo basket in her hand, which is piled with freshly picked fresh flowers.

"Young Master Fei Yi." Seeing him coming, Lu Yuan bowed far away.

Ling Guyue walked up to her and saw that there were several kinds of flowers blooming in splendor in the garden, but there was always only a bouquet of red medicine in her flower basket, so she asked, "I have seen the girl here these days, but for some reason only Just pick this kind of flower?"

Lu Yuan lowered her head and fiddled with the bright red and soft red medicine in the basket, and said softly, "Do you know the other name of this flower?"

Ling Guyue thought for a while, thought of the records in the book, and replied: "Jianli Cao?"

"That's right, Jianglicao represents parting. It is a flower given to me by my sister, and it is also her favorite flower..."

"Your sister? Could it be Miss Qingchan?"

"Young Master, why did you say that?" Lu Yuan smiled slightly.

Ling Guyue said with her hands behind her back: "One of your names has a green character, and the other has a green character. I think you should have a good relationship, and it's okay to be called sisters."

Lu Yuan just shook her head slightly, stroked the left hand of the basket, and smiled without saying a word.

Only then did Ling Guyue notice a mole on the tiger's mouth on her left hand.Then I looked at Lu Yuan carefully, and saw that her brows and eyes were sparse, delicate and elegant, and she was different from Qing Chan's beauty and generosity, so she asked: "When did Miss Lu Yuan come to Shuyinglou? She came with Qing Chan Is it?"

Lu Yuan denied softly: "Sister Qingchan and I didn't come here together, and we are not familiar with each other."

Ling Guyue questioned: "Aren't you all in Shuyinglou? How come you are not familiar with it?"

Lu Yuan lowered her head and smiled, her smoky eyebrows and fine eyes were full of tenderness, she still shook her head slightly, without answering.

Seeing that she was careless and polite, Ling Guyue stopped talking.I handed the green kite away, crossed the Yanboshi barge long embankment, and walked straight to Qingyuxuan.

Ever since I ran into the young son of the Zhao family on the street last time, Lin Jue seemed to have noticed that there was a clear gap between the two of them. In order to dispel Ling Guyue's doubts, he took the initiative to tell the whole plan, and even told Ling Guyue Du Wangye in advance residence.

"There is an old house in the east of the city, which is the former prince's mansion, but it has been abandoned for many years, and there are probably not many houses left. If you want to go, just ask Qingchan to find someone to take you there."

Ling Guyue nodded and said, "Thank you, sir."

Lin Jue asked in confusion: "Everyone says that Prince Du is a lunatic, why did you want to find him?"

Ling Guyue smiled and said: "When I was free, I read a book, and there was Prince Du in it. He was a strange person, which aroused my curiosity. Now that I'm in Jinling, just drop by and pay a visit."

Seeing his serious expression, Lin Jue didn't ask any more questions, and panted a few times: "In the past few days, girls from all over the world have arrived. After I make arrangements, they will be able to perform on stage for the first time at the beginning of next month. At that time, Shu The photo studio can invite famous nobles in the city..." Lin Jue raised his eyes to look at Ling Guyue, seeing that his expression did not change, and continued: "Zhao Qiushan should also come at that time..."

Ling Guyue said: "Since I have agreed to the landlord Lin, I will definitely do it, but the matter of the bald lamp needs the landlord to pay more attention."

Lin Jue breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Young master, you are welcome, you should."

Ling Guyue said again: "In the next two days, I plan to go to the south of the city to see Prince Du. I don't know if Master Lin has any other arrangements?"

Lin Jue said with a smile: "Young master, just go, there is nothing to bother you except for Nuanyanyu."

"That's good."

After finishing the business, Ling Guyue got up to leave.

All the way through the flowers and willows, passing through several pavilions, and stepping on the three-two stone bridge, looking at the green kite still standing in the red medicine bushes on the way.She saw that the flower basket was placed on the stone bench beside her, and she didn't pick flowers, but just stared at the flowers in a daze.

Ling Guyue only felt that this girl was very mysterious, so she stopped disturbing her and leisurely went back to the front building facing the street.

Although Shuyinglou is located in Yanzifang, like other brothels, it is a place for flesh and blood business, but Ling Guyue has never seen any guests come to have fun during the day.

Qing Chan once told him that the Shuying Studio only opened its doors at night to welcome guests, and that most of the girls here were just performing arts and not selling themselves, and they even laughed at themselves as women in the dirty pit.

In the evening, the Shuying Building, which had been silent for a day, became lively. The woman plucked the pipa and hid behind the scenes.

Sometimes the melody is sonorous, like broken jade beads; sometimes it is lingering and long, like an autumn soul dreaming.

Everyone in the seat is a dignitary, a literati, a poet, or a son of a famous family.Writers pour thin wine lightly, and madmen get drunk.

Qingchan stood upstairs overlooking the hall, turned her head to Ling Guyue and said, "Master, are you interested in performing on stage?"

Ling Guyue leaned against the door and said with a smile: "Without talent or art, how dare you show your shame?"

Qing Chan raised her eyebrows and said, "I think Young Master seems to be someone who is hiding something."

Ling Guyue said lightly: "How do you say that?"

Qing Chan walked around him calmly, nodded and said: "Young Master has a slender body, a flexible waist, and strong arms. If he dances a sword, he will definitely not lose to the Gongsun family back then."

Ling Guyue sighed secretly for this woman's insight, and worried that she would see some flaws, so she hurriedly changed the subject, "I don't know what your landlord said about me?"

Qingchan said: "The landlord said, the young master is a distinguished guest of our Shuying Studio, and asked us to treat him nicely."

Ling Guyue asked doubtfully, "It's gone?"

Qingchan blinked, "What else can we do? If the host doesn't say anything, we naturally won't ask about it. The host is very smart and has his own plans, so Qingchan can just do it."

Ling Guyue rubbed her chin, and thought to herself: Lin Jue is really good at winning people's hearts.

Qingchan looked at him, and suddenly said: "By the way, I heard from the landlord that the young master is going to the prince's mansion in the south of the city. I don't know when the young master will leave? Qingchan should make preparations as soon as possible."

Ling Guyue looked at her curved almond eyes, and suddenly thought of another person, so she invited her to sit down in the room, which made Qingchan a little flattered.

"Miss Qingchan, I am very curious about some things, I wonder if the girl can answer one or two questions?"

Qingchan said: "Young master, just ask, Qingchan will know everything."

Ling Guyue propped her chin and said: "Today I asked Miss Luyuan when she came here, but she seemed unwilling to answer. I was wondering, did she suffer some kind of grievance here?"

Qingchan chuckled, waved her hand and said, "Everyone knows that in our building, the landlord loves her the most, who would dare to let her be wronged? It's just that she is the youngest, and her life experience is quite rough, presumably she doesn't want to mention the past."

Ling Guyue tentatively said: "Lvyuan's life experience..."

Qingchan shook her head and said: "This Qingchan doesn't know, all the girls in the building have a past that they don't want to mention, and only the host knows those stories."

Ling Guyue nodded, and continued: "I asked her again, how is her relationship with Miss Qingchan, and she said that the two of you are not familiar with each other..."

Qingchan raised her eyebrows and said, "I can't tell, Mr. Feiyi is quite capable of provoking the relationship between our sisters."

Ling Guyue covered her lips and coughed twice, "It's just a curious question."

Qing Chan didn't seem to mind, and explained: "I and Lu Yuan are the first batch of maidservants of the landlord. I came here before her, and the landlord named me Qingchan. As for the original name, I have long forgotten it. One day, the landlord went out to do some errands, and when he came back, he was holding a little girl in her hand. She was wearing thin clothes, showing bruises all over her body. It was very distressing. The landlord said that she was picked up outside, lonely and helpless. Damn, so I kept her and named her Luyuan. Later, there were more and more girls in the building. Besides us, there were Xue Ying, Bi Luan and Huang Yu, but in Shuying Building, only Me and her. I don't know much about the affairs in the backyard. Most of them are busy with Lu Yuan. Besides taking care of the landlord's daily life, she has many things to worry about. I only need to take care of the front building's business. These years, we Everyone is busy with their own affairs, and there is no time for chatting, and she has always been taciturn, so it is understandable for her to say she is not familiar with her."

Ling Guyue nodded slightly, and asked again: "Lord Lin said that every girl who comes here has the opportunity to choose to stay or leave... Are all the girls here willing to stay?"

Qingchan nodded and said: "That's true, the landlord never forces anyone to stay here."

"But as far as I know, almost all the girls are very concerned about their innocence, no one is willing to stay in the brothel, you..." Ling Guyue looked at Qingchan, "Why don't you leave?"

Qingchan shook her head, her eyes were full of respect for Lin Jue, and said: "Shuying Building is my home, the landlord is my benefactor, Qingchan will not go anywhere, even if I die, I will die here."

Ling Guyue was silent for a moment, then changed the topic and said: "...I plan to go to the south of the city tomorrow, but I'm not good at riding horses, can I ask the girl to help hire a coachman to drive?"

Qingchan smiled and said: "Of course it's no problem. We didn't have a dedicated groom at first, but the third master in the building likes to drive a cart when he has nothing to do. Tomorrow, I will ask the third master if he is free. If the third master is inconvenient, I will Just hire someone else."

Ling Guyue nodded and said, "Thank you."

Qingchan held up her skirt, got up and said with a smile: "My lord, you don't have to be polite, this is what I should do. If you have nothing else to do, Qingchan will go down to greet the guests first."

The next day, Qingchan called Ling Guyue to go out, there was indeed a carriage parked downstairs, and a coachman was sitting on the frame, but it was not the one who picked him up at the pier that day.

Qing Chan smiled slightly and said: "The third master has something to do today, so I found another driver for the young master. Don't look at this man's appearance, he has been bragging to me for a long time, saying that he has excellent driving skills and pays attention to two things in his life: one is not upright, Second, don’t shake. Young Master, you should try it out, if the car shakes a bit, I’ll go to trouble him later!”

The coachman answered with a smile, "Miss Qingchan, my skills are even praised by Boss Wang, how could I talk big to you!"

Ling Guyue nodded in agreement, opened the curtain, and stepped into the car.

The coachman shook the reins, the horse's hooves made a rattling sound on the stone road, and then trotted towards the south of the city.

Ling Guyue sat firmly in the carriage, turning around all the way, one horse and one cart running through the streets and alleys of the city for so long, yet it was as if she was walking on flat ground.

"Young Master, what are you going to do with Prince Du? Could it be that you are also seeking advice from this lunatic?" The coachman sat in front, humming a tune in a good mood.

Ling Guyue's heart moved, and she asked, "Can he tell fortune tellers?"

"That's right, this lunatic lies at the door of his house every day, neither working nor reading, playing with his compass and tortoise shell every day, calling himself a prince when he meets everyone, and even stopping passers-by to tell their fortunes. As far as those two sentences are concerned, either it is 'Your seal is black, and there has been a bloody disaster recently', or it is 'You are born with a hard life, and you are an evil star that can kill your relatives and friends'..." The coachman clicked his tongue twice, and continued: "But Coincidentally, all those who were stopped by him failed to be fulfilled, their wives and children were separated, their families were destroyed... People were reluctant to pass by his door after coming and going, for fear of tainting his bad luck."

"So accurate?" Ling Guyue frowned.

"Isn't it?" The coachman smiled a little smugly, and then lowered his tone appropriately according to what he said, "Prince Du never counts auspicious hexagrams, but only tells bad omens. A beggar came from other places a few years ago. When he arrived at the gate of the prince's mansion, he was stopped by Prince Du. Prince Du clapped his hands and laughed. He would soon die on the street. Unexpectedly, the beggar died the next day, lying on the road, bleeding to death from his seven orifices. This matter Everyone in the south of the city knows it!"

Ling Guyue secretly laughed that the coachman was alarmist, and didn't take the matter to heart, but when it was almost time, the coachman reined in hurriedly, "Young master, the prince's mansion is in front of you, you should go there by yourself, I have seniors and subordinates There are small ones, so you have to be careful."

Ling Guyue had no choice but to get out of the car, followed the driver's finger to look, and a dilapidated mansion appeared not far away.

"That's right there, young master, be careful, I'll wait for you to come out here." The coachman tied the horse to a tree beside him and watched Ling Guyue walk towards the house.

It is said to be the prince's mansion in front of me, there is not even a gate or screen wall left, only two leaky wing rooms are left, the red paint on the pillars is peeled off, and the roof collapsed, like a beggar's den.

Ling Guyue stood in front of the dark door and hesitated for a moment, a musty smell mixed with rotten wood came over her face.Just when he was about to step into the door frame without a wooden door, before his front foot landed, there was a rush of horseshoes behind him, and at the same time, a voice came: "Mr. Scarlet Clothes! What a coincidence, I met you here !"

Ling Guyue retracted her outstretched foot silently, and looked back, as expected, it was the young master of the Zhao family.

Beads of sweat hung on Mr. Zhao's forehead, and his chubby face was flushed. He was riding a horse, which neighed endlessly, and paced back and forth anxiously in place.

Seeing that he obviously just rushed over, Ling Guyue asked, "Is Mr. Zhao doing something here?"

"It's nothing wrong, I happened to be passing by..." Mr. Zhao rolled over and got off his horse. Because he was nervous, he almost fell off. Fortunately, he held on to the saddle tightly so that he would not make a fool of himself. He looked up and saw Ling Guyue looking at him with a smile on his face, with a blushing expression on his face Throwing away the reins, Xiaobu stepped forward.

The horse was unrestrained, kicked up its hooves and galloped, raising a cloud of smoke, and then disappeared from the sight of the two of them.

"Master Zhao, your mount..."

Mr. Zhao quickly waved his hands, "It's okay, it's okay... Anyway, I still have a lot of horses at home."

Seeing that his chin was almost buried in his collar, Ling Guyue smiled and said, "Mr. Zhao..."

"My name is Zhao Yihuan..." Mr. Zhao raised his eyes to glance at Ling Guyue, and whispered.

Ling Guyue didn't know how he knew he would come here, if it was a coincidence, he really didn't believe it, so he asked: "Did Mr. Zhao just go to Shuyinglou?"

"How do you know?" Zhao Yihuan's eyes widened, and the two slits caught between the horizontal flesh finally became the size of a normal person's eyes.

Seeing his reaction, Ling Guyue understood that it was the people from Shuyinglou who told him. Thinking of her deal with Lin Jue, she was no longer as angry as she was that night, and said lightly: "I'm here to find Prince Du, Mr. Zhao has What's up?"

Zhao Yihuan hurriedly said: "What a coincidence, I also came to find Prince Du!"

"Let's go together, Mr. Zhao, please..." Ling Guyue stepped into the door together with him.

The vision in the house is dim, and there are a lot of sundries piled up, but there is no bed or table, and it doesn't look like someone lives.

"I heard that someone is looking for me... who is it?" A ragged middle-aged man sat up from the corner and scratched his gray hair.

Zhao Yihuan exclaimed, and unconsciously stood in front of Ling Guyue, "You, are you Prince Du?"

The middle-aged man smiled strangely, "I'm Lord Du, are you two coming to see me for a drink or a fortune teller?"

Ling Guyue suddenly remembered that it was also mentioned in "The Thirteenth Family of Jinling" that Prince Du is good at wine. When he was depressed, he often drank all night. Later, he got acquainted with Qiu Chenggu because of wine.

The Prince Du in the book is rich and handsome. Although there is a big gap with the Prince Du in front of him, there are many similarities, so he asked, "Have you read the book "The Thirteen Families of Jinling"?"

Prince Du sneered and said, "How about seeing it? So what if you haven't seen it?"

"So you've seen it?"

Prince Du glanced at him lightly, and clicked his tongue, "Why are you asking this? You can ask the beggars on the bridge, and they will know a little bit about this kind of broken books."

Ling Guyue said: "I want to inquire about two people."

"Who?" Prince Du grabbed his clothes and blew out the blades of grass he took out.

Ling Guyue said: "One is a bald man, and the other is Qiu Chenggu."

Duke Du burst out laughing when he heard these two names, "I do know these two people, but if you want to ask me, you have to agree to one request."

"any request?"

"Let me make a divination for you."

Without any hesitation, Ling Guyue opened her clothes and sat down in front of him, "Okay."

Hearing that someone was willing to let him divination, Prince Du became excited, dragged out the treasured oracle bones and compass from the corner, lit a white candle as short as a little finger, and moved it in front of Ling Guyue, "Give me your hand .”

Zhao Yihuan watched from the side, a little worried that this lunatic would harm Ling Guyue, and was so anxious that he circled around the two of them again, squatting on the side to look.

Prince Du put away his smirking expression, and seriously put Ling Guyue's hand under the broken compass, and at the same time put the oracle bone on the candle to bake. The pointer turned rapidly, and the cracks on the oracle bone became more and more dense.

"Okay," Du Wang asked Ling Guyue to take back his hand, "the other one comes over."

"I?"

"he?"

Ling Guyue glanced at Zhao Yihuan, "Didn't you say that as long as I test it, it's all right?"

Prince Du laughed and said, "Buy one and get one free, you're not losing money! Hurry up, I'll tell you the whereabouts of the two of them after the test is completed."

Ling Guyue thought in his heart that this person deliberately disclosed information to lure me into the bait, but it's nothing if I let him test it, Mr. Zhao... At this moment, he glanced at Zhao Yihuan.

Seeing Ling Guyue looking at him, Zhao Yihuan's head became hot, he patted his chest, and sat cross-legged beside Ling Guyue, "I can promise you, but you must keep your promise after the test!"

Prince Du laughed twice, "Of course!"

Another series of repeated steps, the compass pointer in Zhao Yihuan's hand kept turning, and the cracks on the oracle bone deepened a bit.

Ling Guyue thought in her heart: I want to see what this broken compass can measure.

Just as he was watching the direction of the crack on the oracle bone, a puff of blue smoke rose, and Prince Du blew out the candle, with a smile on his face, "Okay."

Zhao Yihuan hurriedly asked: "What about the hexagram?"

Prince Du laughed so uncontrollably, he clapped his hands after a long time and said: "You two are really a perfect match! One is the lone star of the devil, who can kill everyone close to him, and the other will soon have his family ruined and his family will be ruined, and he will be lonely for a lifetime!"

Zhao Yihuan's chubby face wrinkled into a bitter gourd appearance, he clenched his hands into fists, and said angrily, "What nonsense are you talking about!"