Bend Over [ 折腰 ] - Chapter 20

[Chapter 20: Cohabitation]

The Wei family’s mansion not only has the usual grandeur of the northern family house, but also adheres to the system of marquises. The three openings of the gate are covered with a mountaintop, and the bottom is a huge stone base, the beams are decorated with dragon paintings, and a pair of bronze lions of half height are lined up on the left and right of the door. The front hall is grand, and the various residences in the back house are also well separated by courtyard walls, and the courtyard is connected in the middle, and the overall layout is clear and open.

The person with the highest status in the Wei family was undoubtedly Lady Xu, who was still living endlessly at this time. Lady Xu’s residence is located in the middle and north, and it is now empty. Wei Shao’s mother, Zhu Shi, lived in the east, and Xiao Qiao was placed in the opposite west house.

The west house is called “house”, but it is actually a small independent courtyard, through two doors, through the heavy court and the left and right wing rooms, and finally to the most private bedroom, the ear room patio, all complete.

There were more than a dozen servants in the west room, and they all knelt outside the door to greet Xiao Qiao and called her a lady.

Although there was no prophetic illumination when I came back this time, everything inside and outside the house was clean, and the inside of the bedroom was even more dusty.

In the future, Little Joe will live here for a long time.

When Chunniang and the maid put away their outfits, Xiao Qiao noticed that there were several sets of clothes for the man and some daily utensils left in the room.

It seemed that Wei Shao used to be at home, and he usually lived in this room.

In Xindu, in front of Zhong Mi, Wei Shao was openly separated from himself, without the slightest intention of hiding, which showed that he did not care at all about how his family viewed the relationship between the two couples. Coupled with his usual contempt for himself, Little Joe deduced that next, he should not reluctantly live with himself.

This was naturally a humiliation for her, a newly married “lady”, and by tomorrow, the slaves of the Wei family would presumably take her as a topic of discussion behind her back.

Trees have bark, and people have skins. Trees can’t live without bark, and people can’t live without this skin, although they can’t die, it’s inevitable that it will be ugly.

Little Joe is also a layman. Newcomers, who want to spend a night become a joke in the eyes of others. If she can put one out, she is also happy to work hard.

But this kind of thing cannot be solved by oneself. It is estimated that Wei Shao was eager to shoot herself like a fly, and her eyes were clean, so she could only think of opening as much as possible.

Fortunately, the heart and eyes are big enough not to give themselves horns and sharp diamonds, which is probably the biggest advantage of Little Joe in addition to this skin bag.

Therefore, she specially ordered Sheng Chunniang to sort out all the things that Wei Shao had left behind before and put them aside, waiting for him to send someone to come and take them.

……

Wei Shao threw her to the steward with a word, and throughout the day, the person disappeared.

The owner of the Wei family naturally could not have any good feelings for Qiao Nu. The same should be true of the servants. But not all servants.

Even if money can’t buy people’s hearts, it is not difficult to buy people to speak.

At the beginning of the Xindu, most of the people in the Xin Palace were from the local area, and they did not know about the Yuyang Wei family. Several of them came with Zhong Mi, because they were afraid of Zhong Mi, they also talked and spit out, and refused to reveal anything more. After settling down here, Chunniang, relying on her ability to see people that she had practiced in the Qiao family, quickly asked a lot of detailed things about the Wei family and Lady Zhu from a servant woman named C Nü in the West House.

Nowadays, marriage is prevalent, and marriage pays attention to the right door, especially the family family attaches more importance to this. Therefore, compared with the Wei family, Lady Zhu’s mother’s family was from a lower background, and her father was originally only a capital post in Zhuo County, and then joined the army, because of his merits, he was promoted to lang general, and was heavily valued by Wei Shao’s grandfather, and in a battle, he blocked a cold arrow for Wei Shao’s grandfather, and he was in the middle of the key and died. Wei Shao’s grandfather felt guilty and grateful, and saw that the Zhu family had a daughter with the same age as the eldest son, Wei Jing, so he hired him to marry a wife.

After Zhu entered the Wei family, he gave birth to two sons. The eldest son Wei Bao, Zi Bogong, the second son Wei Shao, Zi Zhonglin, ten years ago unfortunately killed her husband and eldest son at the same time, Zhu Shi was hurt, and could not recover from the blow, and then somehow approached Wu Zhu, very convinced.

Madame Xu’s attitude towards the Zhu clan has always been neither cold nor hot. Zhu Shi was also a little afraid of this mother-in-law from zhongshan kingdom. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are not close. In the past few years, as Wei Shao was fully in charge of the army, Lady Xu was not in charge of things, and for more than half of the year, she lived in the endless life, leaving Zhu Shi to stay in the Yuyang mansion.

At Zhu’s side, there was an eighteen-year-old girl who was not yet married, named Zheng Chuyu, who was Zhu’s niece. Zheng’s father was once a Sinong, but unfortunately died early, becoming an orphan daughter and defecting to her aunt. A few years ago, Wu Zhu Zhanpu said that Zheng Chuyu was Zhu’s lifeline Jiren, with her in it, Zhu Clan could avoid fierceness and ji, just when Zhu Clan had an illness, Zheng Chuyu took care of it day and night, Zhu Clan was able to recover, and after recovering, he was convinced and loved her more and more. Because Zheng Chuyu was not born enough, he asked his son to take her as a concubine. But I don’t know why, Wei Shao did not accept it for a long time, Zhu Shi has been raising Zheng Chuyu around for the past two years, and the treatment is no different from Wei Shaoji’s concubine, and her family calls her Zheng Shu.

“Lady Jun, why did you say that Marquis Wei was too old to marry a weak crown?” In addition to this Zheng Shu, there was actually another one before…”

Chunniang came to Xiao Qiao’s ear and was about to continue, when the servant woman named Lady C hurriedly came over to deliver a message, saying that Lady Zhu had returned from Yushan, and the male jun had also returned, and asked the female jun to go to see the elders together.

Chunniang stopped.

Xiao Qiao was already dressed properly, and there was no need to change clothes, he looked in the mirror slightly, took a pair of excellent needlework that Chunniang had prepared for her earlier, opened the door and walked out.

Wei Shao was standing at the yongdao fork in the road leading to the East House, and should have been waiting for her.

In addition to his battle robes, his civilian clothes seemed to be only blue. When he was in Xindu, Little Joe met him several times and saw him always wearing a deep blue coat. Fortunately, that face can still be seen, so it is not old-fashioned. At this moment, he was also wearing a deep blue coat, but compared with Xiao Qiao’s body, the style was very loose, and a wide belt with white jade was tied around his waist, lining his narrow waist and wide back, the back shadow was straight, and there was a wind attacking from his side, rolling up the corners of the robe on one side, less rigid when he usually wore a battle robe, and it looked a little bit like Xiao Sa.

In fact, Xiao Qiao heard the words of the C woman here, at most not more than half a quarter of an hour, the road to the courtyard is not short, and it takes some time to walk. But he seemed to have waited impatiently. Hands behind your back. Hearing the footsteps approaching, he turned his head to see her coming, turned around and walked in the direction of the East House.

His fast steps, coupled with the length of his legs, quickly pulled down Little Joe for a while. Xiao Qiao at first accelerated his pace, but seeing that he really couldn’t catch up, he said to his back: “Husband, can you slow down?” Wei Shao

seemed stunned, stopped, and turned his head to glance at her.

Xiao Qiao lifted the skirt, took a few steps to his side, and smiled slightly: “I am dressed formally to meet the elders, the skirt is slightly narrow, and it is not fast.” Husband, you are taller than me, and your legs and feet are long, if you go faster, I can only run and chase. She is

now standing on his side, only his shoulders, in the future, such a tall and petite, but also earn a so-called “most cute height difference”, here really fell on the head of Little Joe, but it is not so beautiful.

Wei Shao glanced at her again.

When she finished speaking, she closed her mouth, the corners of her lips naturally upturned slightly, and her eyes were crystal clear, looking at him with a smile.

Wei Shao actually didn’t really want to pay attention to it. I just don’t know why, but I can’t pull my face down at her. Finally he grunted, his face looked even more stiff, he raised his chin slightly, signaled her to keep up with him, turned around and walked forward again.

This time his pace really slowed down. Little Joe walked with him easily and stepped into the East House.

There were no less than twenty servants in the East House, all of whom had gathered on both sides of the corridor, and when they saw Wei Shao leading Xiao Qiao over in the distance, they all came out and knelt down. Xiao Qiao followed Wei Shao into the big room where Madame Zhu was located under the gaze of a bunch of eyes that were either amazed, curious, or disdainful.

House.The furnishings are exquisite, and the air is filled with a strong musk smell. After Wei Shao’s mother, Lady Zhu, returned, she should have changed her head and sat on the square bed on the side of the rosewood low screen on the opposite side. She is in her early forties, slightly fat, dressed in Chinese clothes, a pearl green, should be a beauty when she was young, even now, the facial features are still very zhouzheng, but probably because of the perennial habit of stretching her face, the corners of the lips are slightly drooping, and there are two deep wrinkles on both sides, which makes her not only look old, but also has a proud look. On her knees sat a woman dressed in light purple, seventeen or eighteen years old, and the color of her clothes well supported her fair complexion, and also lined her appearance more beautifully. When she saw Wei Shao come in, her face was slightly flushed, and she hurriedly got up from the bed, saluted him, and called him “cousin” in her mouth.

Wei Shao answered faintly. The woman deliberately modified it, saw that he did not look at herself much, and there was a faint disappointment in her eyes, and then she looked at Xiao Qiao, and her gaze was slightly certain.

Xiao Qiao knew that this woman should be that Zheng Shu, Wei Shao’s cousin. After taking a quick look, he followed Wei Shao to Lady Zhu’s bed and stood with his hand hanging down.

After Mrs. Zhu came in from Little Joe, it was as if she didn’t see her. Only showing a happy and kind smile to his son, beckoning him to sit on his side, constantly looking at him, stroking his arm, first sighing and feeling sorry for his son in the past six months, and then asking him about his daily diet and living, and finally asking about the military situation of the war, Wei Shao briefly mentioned a few words, and she sighed: “I am a woman and a Taoist family, although you do not understand military information, you also said smoothly, but I know the danger.” Zhonglin, you have to take care of yourself, and there must be no bad pool.

Wei Shao gently reassured Lady Zhu with a few words.

Madame Zhu nodded, “Although this world is dangerous, only my son Jiren Tianxiang has the protection of gods and men, I have nothing to worry about, the most feared, is that people’s hearts are dangerous…”

She threw her first glance at Xiao Qiao since she came in, and it was also full of disgust and hatred.

“Zhonglin, if your father hadn’t been easy to trust, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable situation.” I still think of the death of your father and brother in those years, often heart attack, still can not sleep at night, hate can not eat the flesh of the enemy. You must remember the lessons of the past, and you must not trust people anymore! The

sentence “Raw to eat the flesh of the enemy”, she almost gritted her teeth, jumped out word by word, and her gaze was embedded in Xiao Qiao’s face, which was not only disgust and hatred, but also concealed a fierce color, as if she really wanted to bite off the flesh on her body one by one.

Xiao Qiao was ready to be hated by Madame Zhu, but she did not expect that her disgust would be blunt and fierce to such a point, the first time in her life to encounter such a situation, the previous psychological construction was still not in place, this time could not help but give a cold gag, the face was unconsciously slightly white, and the fingertips were also cold.

Wei Shao glanced at Xiao Qiao and said to Lady Zhu, “My son has a measure in his heart. Mother doesn’t have to worry about it. Then he said, “Mother rushed back from the mountain today, and she must have been tired on the road, so the son brought the bride to give you a gift, and the mother had better rest earlier.” After saying that, he stood up in front of a kneeling mat that had been laid in front of Madame Zhu’s bed.

Xiao Qiao calmed his mind, hurried to the other mat, knelt down with the man on the side, and prostrated his head to Madame Zhu on the bed.

Mrs. Zhu’s face was calm, and she looked at her son, and did not look at Xiao Qiao at all.

Little Joe followed the man on the side to perform the prostration ceremony, but he could not get up, and according to the rules, he offered the prepared needlework with both hands, held high above the top, and waited for someone to come and collect it.

She bowed her head and raised her hands for a long time, but did not move. Until the arms on both sides began to sour, some could not move, and when they were still gritting their teeth and insisting, they reached over a hand from the side, took it, and put it in front of Madame Zhu’s bed.

“Mother, if nothing happens, the two of us will leave first.”

Wei Shao’s voice rang out.

Little Joe lowered his arm and slowly stood up from the kneeling pad.

“She’s going to be good. And you stay. I have something more to say.
Madame
Zhu said coldly.

Little Joe bowed to the people on the bed and silently turned and went out.

“Yu’er, you should go out first, and your aunt will talk to your cousin.”

Madame Zhu looked at Zheng Chuyu, who had been standing on the side, and said with a kind smile on her face.

Zheng Chuyu looked at Wei Shao, and in a soft voice, he bowed to the two of them and bowed down to him and retreated.

……

“Zhonglin! Aren’t you really going to take her to the Temple of worship tomorrow? There were

two mothers and sons left in the room, Madame Zhu immediately asked.

Wei Shao’s face was expressionless, and two words came out of his mouth: “How can it be!”
Madame
Zhu seemed to be relieved and snorted, “This is good.” I also said that you were so seduced by the beauty of this woman that you forgot the revenge of your father and brother! I just wanted her to be embarrassed more, but you were good, you took that thing for me, who wants it! It’s shocking when you see it!

Wei Shao frowned slightly, “Almost.” The son still has something to wait for, and he can’t always delay her. The mother did not like it, threw away the scissors, and followed the mother’s wishes.
When Madame
Zhu saw that her son seemed to be a little unhappy, she gave up and changed her mouth: “You have been gone for half a year, Yu’er misses you very much, tonight…”

“Tonight her son stayed in Qiao’s women’s room.” Wei Shao interrupted Lady Zhu’s words, “Mother, the son told you one last time, the son did not think half a bit about his cousin, the mother still took the opportunity to find a suitable family and marry the cousin out.” Don’t waste the peach and plum years again, and regret it too late!
Madame
Zhu looked at her son angrily, half-dazed, and said angrily, “Well, I raised you with hard work, and you fed me like this?” I’m not forcing you to do anything else, I’m just letting Nayu’er enter the room. Your father has a lineage, now only you pass on, you are twenty-two years old, it is really not small, so far there are no heirs, finally married a wife, but married a daughter of the Qiao family! I can’t stand your grandmother, she is in charge, and I can only recognize it. How could such a person’s daughter open up branches and leaves for my Wei family? Sooner or later, it will be suspended! What is wrong with Yu’er, you have to be so angry with me…”

Madame Zhu suddenly seemed to remember something, and her eyes widened.

“Could it be that you still remember that Su girl from before?” Delay in marrying, don’t say, even ask you to take a concubine! Wei Shao’s

eyes flashed a shadow, but his expression became more and more indifferent, and he said lightly, “Mother, you think about it a lot!” My son is out of the house, all year round, busy with military affairs all day, why bother to think about these winds and snows? Chu Yu’s matter did not need to be mentioned again in the future. The son had something else to do and retired first. It is advisable for the mother to rest early. Wei Shao

leaned slightly toward Lady Zhu, turned his head and left.

Mrs. Zhu stared at the back of her son’s departure, her face was annoyed, and she suddenly glanced at the needle and thread on the little Qiao Jing that was still on the bed, picked it up, and bit her teeth with the scissors, clicked and cut it into two pieces, and finally threw it on the ground along with the scissors.

……

Chunniang waited for Xiao Qiao outside the courtyard of the East House, saw her come out, greeted her, accompanied her silently for a while, and finally returned to the bedroom where she lived, and the next person retreated, which asked about the past just now.

Xiao Qiao had already set the gods, and ChunNiang did not have to hide anything, and briefly recounted the experience of Fang Cai herself seeing Madame Zhu.

Chunniang was silentHan Yan said, “Lady Jun, Madame hates Lady Jun so much, and if she wants to please her, I am afraid that she is powerless to return to heaven.” Now I can only look at Madame Xu. If Lady Xu is the same, Lady Jun…”

She hesitated and leaned over to Xiao Qiao’s ear: “Lady Jun, have you ever thought of serving Wei Hou in a gentle manner in order to get his protection?” Previously, in Xindu, the concubine felt that although Wei Hou also treated the female prince coldly because of the old hatred of the two families, he did not look like a person who took pleasure in abuse, nor was he a great evil person. Listening to what the woman said today, Wei Hou has a rare amount of time to stay here all year round. Madame hated it so much, and if Lady Xu hated it too, when Wei Hou left, leaving Lady Jun alone, how would she live?

Little Qiao looked at Chunniang. Some were surprised by the idea she suddenly gave herself.

Chunniang touched her long hair lovingly and sighed, “When the maid was still in Xindu, she had the heart to persuade the lady.” The maid also knew that this was a grievance against the lady. Chunniang is just a stupid and blunt person, and the female monarch is a hundred times smarter than Chunniang. If it is not true, the queen will punish it.

Little Joe shook his head, “I know you’re doing it for my own good.” Now that I have just arrived, I am not in a hurry. Wait until you’ve seen Mrs. Xu.

She smiled.

……

Little Joe was actually very tired this day. But the scene when she saw Madame Zhu in the evening made her unable to sleep that night.

She suddenly missed Big Joe. I miss it more than ever.

She lay alone on the bed, turning over and over, thinking that in her previous life, Big Qiao should have been sent back to Yuyang by Wei Shao the next day in the cave room, just like herself. However, she did not encounter any accidents on the road, and finally she came here alone. When she faced Madame Zhu alone and encountered a scene like herself, how did she come over at that time? After the countless days and nights that followed, how did she survive alone until the last moment, when she was deposed by her nominal husband who became emperor, watching him set up another woman as the queen, and then, in what kind of despair and sorrow, she ended her life by suicide?

Although she knew that in this life, she would never encounter such a tragic fate again, Xiao Qiao’s heart was still blocked and panicked, glad that she had made such a correct decision in the last few months of last year.

She just missed Big Joe now, very much to know where she was, how she was doing with her lover.

Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, which sounded somewhat familiar.

Seem……

Is it Wei Shao?

It’s late now. Nor did he send anyone to fetch his things. Or did he not need it, or did he take it himself?

Little Qiao had some doubts, and when she still listened to the movement outside, the door seemed to be pushed by someone, but because she was latched, she couldn’t push it open.

“Lady! The Prince has arrived!

ChunNiang’s voice came over.

Little Joe’s heart skipped a beat.

Sure enough, it was him!

“Here it comes!”

She answered, quickly sat up from the bed, pulled a piece of clothing over her body, hurriedly covered the placket, fastened her belt, and went down to the ground to open the door.

Sure enough, Wei Shao stood outside the door.

“The prince rests here.”

ChunNiang hurried in, with a slightly joyful look on her face, and whispered to Xiao Qiao.

This is a bit of a surprise. When Xiao Qiao was stunned, Wei Shao’s face was tired, and he had already stepped in with his feet up, and went straight to the bathhouse, saying, “Bring my clothes in—”

He took two steps, and suddenly glanced at his own clothes and some remaining daily utensils that had been neatly folded up and put on the case, stopped, slowly turned his head, and looked at Xiao Qiao.

Little Joe suddenly had a black line on his face. Hurriedly walked over to block the front, and explained in a tone as casual as possible: “The servant woman said that there was no one living here for a long time, I was afraid of mold and insects, and during the day there were insects everywhere, when you temporarily took out your clothes and placed them aside, you forgot to put them back…”

Wei Shao kept staring at her.

She couldn’t help but shorten her breath slightly, and her voice became lower and lower. After explaining, I saw him skimming the corners of his mouth and revealing an expression that she was somewhat familiar with.

“Put it back, I’ll live here from now on!”

After Wei Shao finished speaking, he turned his head and walked toward the bath room.

[End of This Chapter]