East China Sea dust

On the second day, it was already noon when Zhang Qinglan woke up.

The dazzling array of candles in the wedding room were extinguished after burning for a long time, and the bright red tears of the candles flowed down and piled up under the lamps, turning into a solidified mass.

The window coffin was covered with heavy curtains, which tightly blocked the sunlight from the outside, and the room was still groggy.

Withdrawing her not yet fully awake consciousness from the half-dream and half-awake state, Zhang Qinglan got up, raised her hand to lift off the thin quilt on her body, and sat on the edge of the bed to wake up.

Dried fruits such as longans and peanuts were sprinkled on the bedside, but Zhang Qinglan didn't pay much attention to it. When she stepped on it with bare feet, the dry and fragile shell burst, making a crackling sound.

The noise was amplified by the drowsy and quiet room, and it rang out suddenly, shocking the young man.

Eyes covered with a light dark color, Zhang Qinglan frowned, and kicked away those little things at her feet with a little boredom.

Zhang Qinglan turned sideways, glanced down at the empty bed on the other side, then looked around, and found that there was no sign of Ao Zhan in the room.

There was still a slight soreness in the joints of his body. The young man was only wearing plain single clothes, and walked slowly to the round table in the middle, picked up the teapot and poured himself a glass of water.

After drinking the cold overnight tea in one gulp, the exhaustion lingering around him just dissipated a little.

The scissors and paper that I saw last night had disappeared completely. Zhang Qinglan raised the back of her hand, wiped off the remaining drops of water from the corners of her lips, and looked down at the no longer cluttered desktop thoughtfully.

Recalling Ao Zhan's abnormal attitude at that time, and those exquisitely crafted paper figurines, Zhang Qinglan felt quite a headache.

The bronze mirror on the side silently reflected the thin and thin figure of the young man at this time, with black hair hanging down his shoulders and scattered on the plain white clothes.

Maybe it was just when he got out of bed that he accidentally stepped on the dried fruit on the ground, which made a lot of noise and alarmed the servants waiting outside the room.Not long after, someone knocked on the door from the outside, and there were several light and rapid "duk-duk" sounds.

"Madam is awake," a vicissitudes old woman's voice sounded from outside the door, and entered the room through the crack of the door: "Do you want this old servant to come in and serve you?"

It seemed to be a respectful request, but the old woman didn't wait for Zhang Qinglan's response. After confirming that the people in the room were indeed awake, she took out the key from her waist and opened the door directly.

The woman standing outside the threshold stretched out her hand, and pressed her wrinkled fingers like tree bark on the word "Xi" on the door panel. She pushed open the closed door in two or three strokes, and brought four people with low brows and pleasing eyes. The maid walked right in.

The expression on the woman's old face was very calm. Standing in front of the young man who was a head taller than her, she bowed and said, "Good morning, madam."

"The old slave is the nanny in charge of the mansion. Today, the master specially ordered that the slaves come to help you wash up."

"Don't work..."

Zhang Qinglan was dizzy from this battle, and subconsciously wanted to refuse, but was pushed to the bronze mirror by several people, who lightly pressed his shoulders, forcing him to sit down on the dressing stool.

Hearing the nanny in charge call out "Bitao", a girl in pink walked up to the young man in twos and threes with a copper basin in her hand.

Bi Tao put the copper basin filled with clear water on the sour branch wooden stand next to the vanity mirror, then picked up the clean white cloth and bowed softly: "Good morning, madam."

Before he finished speaking, a face towel dipped in cold water lightly covered the corners of his eyes, leaving a moist water mark.

Several attendants moved neatly and had a clear division of labor. They were responsible for cleaning Zhang Qinglan's face, binding her hair, and dressing Zhang Qinglan.

Mammy was not idle, and lifted the heavy curtain that had been covering the window, and the bright and brilliant sunlight immediately dispelled the darkness and gloom in the room, illuminating the entire room very brightly.

Bitao wrung out the used cloth towel and put it next to the copper basin.Then he knelt beside Zhang Qinglan, lowered his head, and stretched out his hands to straighten the tassels of the jade pendant on the young man's waist.

Behind him was another maid, holding both ends of a moon-white headband with both hands, and tied Zhang Qinglan's black hair one by one, with a very respectful and cautious expression.

Zhang Qinglan deliberately refused, but the moment she was about to speak, she found that her throat seemed to be stuffed with dry cotton, and she couldn't make a sound.

Not only that, but his hands and feet were also immobilized as if they were bound by shackles.He could only sit on the dressing stool and watch the group of people busy around him.

A green and emerald long-sleeved shirt was draped over her body, with delicate dark patterns embroidered with light-colored silk threads, paired with a plain wooden hairpin inlaid with white jade, which made Zhang Qinglan's overall demeanor as cold as a banished fairy.

After half a stick of incense passed, Zhang Qinglan finished taking care of the others, then cleaned up the odds and ends, and quietly exited the door.

Seeing the servants receding one by one and the door closing again, Zhang Qinglan tentatively moved her fingertips, only to realize that she was finally able to move again without restriction.

The nurse in charge who had been waiting in the corner of the room stepped forward again, and said respectfully: "Master has some work to do, so I have to get up early this morning to do some work. I hope Madam will be considerate, just wait at home."

Zhang Qinglan still hasn't figured out what the situation is now, recalling Ao Zhan's weird appearance last night, she didn't dare to startle the snake, so she just nodded in a daze, and fooled the old woman in front of her for the time being, and responded indiscriminately: "Yeah."

The young man sat motionless on the round stool, and the nurse in charge didn't seem to have the slightest intention of going out, she still stood aside, her eyes were firmly glued to Zhang Qinglan's body, but she didn't say a word.

Tapping lightly on the table with her fingertips, Zhang Qinglan didn't care much about the opponent's rather blatant defense.

He looked around, seeing the furnishings in the room obviously different from any room he was familiar with, and his thoughts spread out little by little.

Recalling the crack-like dark light that flashed in front of her eyes before she fell into a coma, coupled with the majestic and vast spiritual power, a bold guess gradually emerged in Zhang Qinglan's mind.

The young man straightened his back, sat on the round stool, raised his eyelids and looked at the old woman, pointed his finger out of the window, and asked, "Where is this?"

The nurse in charge obviously didn't expect the other party to ask such a thoughtless question, the wrinkles on her face were crowded into a pile, and she showed a smirk: "Ma'am, you are joking, this is Ao Mansion."

Hearing this, Zhang Qinglan suddenly became concerned... There has never been a house with such a layout in the Dragon King's Mansion.

He had thought too much and complicated before, but he never thought that the space he was in might not be the present world at all.

Zhang Qinglan casually said "Oh", as a reply to the other party.

Looking from the surrounding layout to the old mother, Zhang Qinglan observed carefully, as if trying to find some flaws in her face.

The nurse in charge couldn't hold back the smile on her face because of Zhang Qinglan's fastidious gaze, and quickly asked, "Madam, is there anything else you want to say to this old servant?"

"Nothing..." Just halfway through the sentence, the young man paused and pursed his lips.

Mammy's slack eyelids trembled slightly, and the hand hanging by her side pinched the hem of her clothes and kept rubbing it, waiting nervously for the other party to speak.

"It's nothing serious." Zhang Qinglan blinked her eyes calmly, and calmly said, "I'm hungry. I wonder when your house will serve dinner?"

The nurse in charge, whose heart was hanging high in the air, suddenly let go, and was speechless for a while: "..."

***

Seeing that the nurse in charge resigned from the door, she went to the kitchen to fetch food for herself.Zhang Qinglan got up the moment the door closed, and walked to the door in two or three steps.

She stretched out her hand and pulled the edge of the door, looking at the motionless door, Zhang Qinglan's expression darkened slightly.

There was a slight sound in the ear, and the sound of metal scraping through the wooden door was transmitted into the room very weakly.Presumably the old woman was worried about letting the young man stay in the house alone, so she simply locked the door from the outside.

...No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a servant should behave.

Zhang Qinglan wasn't an Ansheng in the first place, so it was impossible for her to stay obediently in the room and be restrained by others.

Turning around the house, after a while, he found a round window about a person's height hidden between the curtains and at the side and rear of the room.

The window was erected effortlessly, and the young man took off the cumbersome long-sleeved shirt, leaving only the bronzing collar inside.

Supporting the window frame with both hands, Zhang Qinglan jumped up lightly, her toes stepped on the solid wooden platform below, and her fingertips rubbed against the layer of dust accumulated on the window sill.With a little effort, the whole person will come out of the window like a light butterfly.

The distance between the back window of the wedding room and the courtyard wall is extremely close, leaving only less than half a meter of space for Zhang Qinglan to shelter.

The bricks and stones of the courtyard wall are gray and gray, and weeds and moss grow in the gaps. As soon as they are turned out of the house, an old and damp grassy smell permeates.The sun is blocked by the courtyard wall, so it is very cool during the period.

Randomly wiping the messy strands of hair sticking to her cheeks, Zhang Qinglan walked forward along the gap, deliberately walking lightly so that no one would notice.

After walking for about ten meters, following a flash of light, the young man walked out of the narrow passage between the courtyard wall and the house. He breathed lightly, and the old and stale smell disappeared from his nostrils.

Zhang Qinglan slowly opened her eyes, adapting to the too harsh sunlight.

After looking around, he realized that he seemed to be in a corner of the courtyard that no one cares about.

The bare land is surrounded by several broken boards, and in the southwest corner is a dry well, beside which there is a rather tall sycamore tree.It is the transition season between spring and summer, and the leaves of sycamore trees are emerald green, blocking the sun for a while, leaving some bright spots on the ground.

Just when Zhang Qinglan took a step and was about to go out.

Two light but sharp female voices gradually approached with the master's steps, laughing and walking towards the young man.

With a thought in Zhang Qinglan's mind, she immediately took a few steps back and hid in the original narrow gap.

Holding his breath, he quietly listened to the conversation between the two.