one

I lived in this house for a full ten years.

The only job is to grow flowers for the owner's home.

Ten years later, someone came to visit me, looked at me and asked, "You have been here for so many years?"

I nodded.

The man looked at the flowerbed like a sea of ​​clouds in the sun, and seemed to sigh: "Only plant ginger flowers?"

I nodded again.

"In the past years...who else will be there except me?"

My vision suddenly blurred.

there is none left.

No one comes except you.

Those handsome and beautiful men, like gods, never came back again...

Only ginger flowers grow day after day, year after year, bloom and fail.

The man looked at me steadily and finally said, "My grandma Cui, do you... want to marry me?"

I was shocked and my hand holding the flower hoe stopped like that.

two

Twenty years ago, I sold flowers in the market. The flowers I had in my hands always looked particularly bright and their flowering period was longer than other families. Over time, everyone knew that under the red brick walls of Taipei City, there was a flower-selling girl who was good at planting flowers.

That day, it rained heavily, but because it was almost the Chinese New Year, every household would buy flowers and give them to others. The teacher in the school once said, "I would like to give you peony." This means that peony should be bestowed on the Chinese New Year. But peony usually blooms in May, so I tried my best to use various methods to delay it until July. Seeing that it was raining these days, my flowers were about to die, so it was the main thing to sell them before they were defeated. Therefore, despite the heavy rain and the road was difficult to walk, I still pulled a cart of peony out.

There were not many people in the market, so I shivered behind the car with an umbrella. After noon, I was holding a bunch of steamed buns and gnawing. A carriage shattered in the wind and rain and suddenly stopped in front of me.

It was a carriage with a black body, which looked ordinary, but the horse pulling the carriage was a good horse. It rushed over and stopped in an instant, without breathing at all, and the fur was even more shiny and extremely majestic.

I looked at the old donkey who was pulling my cart again, and suddenly felt that it was too far apart!

"You are the Cui Niang who is very good at growing flowers?" The driver asked me. I nodded. He pulled the car door and said, "Get in the car."

Wait, what are you doing?

Although I have never taken a carriage since I was so old, I have never known the reason why I got on a carriage without knowing the other person's origin.

Where to go - I asked with gestures.

"The flowers in my young master's mansion died overnight. I heard that you have a good way to plant flowers. Get in the car and cure my young master's flowers. There are many rewards."

I hesitated for a moment - but what should I do with my car?

The coachman threw a bag of coins on the ground in front of me: "We have bought all this car, so you can leave with confidence, right?"

There was water on the ground, and the wallet fell into a deep depression on the mud.

I looked silently for a long time before bent down and slowly picked up my purse.

"Go away!" Seeing that I had picked up money, the coachman urged me even more anxiously.

But I handed him the purse.

His face suddenly changed: "What do you mean?"

I don't mean anything. But I plant and sell money, and passers-by use money to buy flowers. When I go back and forth, I only pay fairness. I don't accept the money thrown to the ground.

Not rare either.

The coachman saw my rejection and said furiously, "I don't know what to lift!" As he said that, he waved his whip and hit me impartially.

I grew up in the market and have seen all kinds of worldly affairs. It was not the first time I was beaten. I have been used to it. Therefore, I didn’t resist, just hugged myself and tried to use my back to whip.

Many people around came around, some persuading and some watching the fun.

And just as I was talking nonsense, I heard a sneer.

There were many sounds around, and the sneer was not loud, but it pierced into my ears like a needle, and I heard it very clearly.

I turned my head and saw another carriage coming across from me at some point. The door was half open, and a boy in white looked like water, clearer than ice and snow. And he looked at me from a distance, his lips raised, and said four words to the people beside him: "You are so chaotic."

The person beside him jumped off the car immediately.

The onlookers retreated one after another, giving way.

The man who jumped out of the car walked up to him with an umbrella and said coldly: "Stop! Why hit her?"

The coachman turned around and saw him, his expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly bowed: "Kong Da, Da, sir..."

Not only was he shocked, but I was also shocked. It was just because this man in purple clothes, who was over 30 years old, was no one else, but Kong Sanguan, the city lord of Yuli City, Yanguo.

I once saw him giving orders on the city wall from afar, but I didn't expect that one day, he would be close at hand.

Kong Sanguan frowned: "Aren't you... that... Feng Mansion coachman?"

"Yes, yes, yes. Adults have a good memory! When my young master visited him three years ago, he was the car that the villain drove." The coachman was overjoyed when he saw him recognize him, but Kong Sanguan immediately lowered his face and said sternly: "Your young master gave you a few courages, but he actually beat a woman who was powerless in the street?"

The coachman was stunned and quickly defended: "No, sir, she first provoked me and insulted my young master..."

A sneer suddenly appeared around him. Then, it turned into laughter.

"What are you laughing at? Why are you laughing at? I didn't say anything. It was this foolish woman who insulted my young master first. I couldn't help but beat her out of indignation..." The coachman made a furious defense, but everyone laughed.

One person pointed at me and said, "She is a mute, why are you insulting you?"

"If you don't ask for a lie, you can even scold someone. It's going to collapse that day!"

"You dog slave who bullies others by your power, come to our Yuli City to play wild. No matter who your master is, the city lord must be punished severely. We cannot let the people in our city be beaten for nothing!"

These people didn't see them stopping them just now, but now they see Kong Sanguan coming, they are all filled with righteous indignation.

Kong Sanguan asked me: "Do you want to sue him?"

According to our laws and regulations, if you are beaten, you can sue it, and then the government will punish you, either pay or go to jail.

I remember one time, when Uncle Wang was chopping wood on the street, he was pushed down the mountain by a evil young man, and he was very injured. So Lord Kong sentenced the evil young man to chop wood for Uncle Wang for a month. The spoiled young master cried and shouted, and his family members went to plead with mercy. Lord Kong said, "It is not easy to know people's hardships to pity others." As a result, after the evil young man cut wood for a month, his personality changed drastically, and he changed from an arrogant and domineering playboy to a good man who is cautious in his words and deeds.

That is the most beautiful story that the people talk about in the three gates of Confucius.

Now, he asked me this way, and I looked at the driver who was hitting me, imagining him helping me stand on the street corner to sell flowers, and I couldn't help but smile.

Seeing that I could still laugh in this situation, Kong Sanguan was stunned: "How?"

I shook my head, pointed at the groom's whip, and then touched my back, showing that it didn't hurt. But it didn't hurt too much, and the coachman was still merciless.

Kong Sanguan nodded and said, "Okay. Since this girl doesn't pursue her, you go."

The coachman refused to leave, with an anxious expression: "Sir, I don't know that all the flowers in my house died overnight. The young master felt very distressed. We were looking for strange people who could plant flowers everywhere. I heard that Yu Li had a very powerful girl, so I rushed to the car to invite her overnight. I was too anxious and offended the girl. I just waved the whip and just scared her and didn't really beat her... Sir, please make sure that this girl will go with me to see if there are any flowers to save... It's not easy for me to come from the imperial capital..."

It turns out that he came from the imperial capital, no wonder he didn't know that I was a mute.

Kong Sanguan said coldly: "She doesn't want to, so do you force me to ask? One day when I see Mr. Feng, I have to ask for advice. How did he discipline the people below him become more and more arrogant."

The coachman suddenly bent his knees, kneeling on the ground without caring about mud on the ground. When he raised his head, his eyes were filled with tears: "Sir, you don't know anything... My son... is almost out of his way... If he hadn't pointed at the flowers outside the window every day, if the flowers hadn't suddenly withered, I wouldn't have been so impatient..."

Kong Sanguan was surprised: "What's wrong with Mr. Feng?"

"My young man has been ill for several years and has not been allowed to talk to the public... Especially in the past six months, I can't even get out of bed!" The coachman said, crying in dismay.

Kong Sanguan seemed very shocked. After standing for a while, he turned to his own carriage and looked at the boy in white. The boy in white nodded silently.

Kong Sanguan immediately said, "If this is the case, then it's a different matter. Cui Niang, if you have nothing to do, how about going with us?"

He is talking about "we", is he going too?

But my flowers...

Kong Sanguan saw my doubts and said, "I will ask someone else to sell your flowers for you. After selling them, you will send the donkey cart back to your home and report it to your family. How about you?"

The coachman said next to him: "Yes, yes, yes, I'll give your family another ten taels of silver to make them feel at ease." As he said that, he handed over the purse I had returned.

But I still didn't answer.

A neighbor next to him who knew the truth said, "She has no family, so it's free to give it to her."

The coachman was stunned and embarrassedly took back his purse.

I turned to Kong Sanguan and made a gesture of "leave it".

The coachman hurriedly opened the car door: "Please get in the car, girl."

I glanced at him and hesitated slightly. Kong Sanguan noticed it and said, "Why... are you going to take our car?"

I responded quickly.

Although the coachman of Fengfu is eager to save his master, after all, he beat me and I don’t want to stay in the same car with him. It would be better to be able to follow Kong Sanguan.

three

So I got on the carriage at Kongsanguan.

There was only him and the boy in white in the car. The boy looked very young, but he was only fifteen or sixteen years old, with deep eyebrows and dark eyes, as if he was made of ice and snow. If mortals were close to him, they would desecrate him.

I couldn't help but shrink to the corner of the car and tried to stay away from him as much as possible.
To be continued...