Volume 1 Chapter 159: Shushu and Nü (Part 1)

  Chapter 159: Su Su and the Girl (Part 1)

  Mei Zi returned from Hong Yu Gou, thinking about the places to be modified on the drawing paper, and accidentally bumped into something. It was hard, with edges and corners, her toes hurt, and her knees hurt.

  She grunted and backed away, hearing someone repeatedly say sorry. She looked up to see a woman in a linen dress and apron, hunched over with her head down in fear. The one who had bumped into her was the woman's small pushcart.

  On the plank cart were placed two old shelves, on which were arranged rouge and powder cosmetics and other trinkets, but they couldn't compare to the goods on the peddler's pole. More than half of them were second-hand items, only better maintained.

  "This old man, the woman is clumsy and also encounters a child crying non-stop, just rushed over, please forgive me." The rough-looking woman spoke quite eloquently.

  "It doesn't matter." Mozi heard the woman call her "husband" and quickly looked at the long shirt she was wearing. The new clothes that Lüjing had sewn for her were made of cool silk fabric suitable for summer, with embroidered willow leaves swaying in the wind.

  Green Chrysanthemum said, when going out, one must dress up and have some style.

  As expected, she's useful, and people are so scared of her that they treat her like a big shot.

  "It's my fault, I wasn't watching the road, no need to be alarmed." She had put on a veil today because she planned to go from Hongyuan Valley to Mochen Residence in a straight line and shouldn't run into anyone familiar. Since she was veiled, her appearance shouldn't be too frightening.

  The woman mentioned the child, and she took a closer look. Indeed, on the woman's back was a two or three-year-old girl who had stopped crying, sucking her thumb, with tears still in her eyes, sniffling, and snot hanging from her nose to her mother's clothes.

  The woman felt relieved when she met someone who spoke reasonably. She straightened up and saw the elegant and refined face, calm shirt, and thought that the other party was a scholar, feeling even more at ease.

  The woman in purple was about to leave when the other woman called out to her in a timid voice.

  "Does the young master have anything that catches his eye? Buying one piece to give to your wife would be good?" The woman usually didn't dare to invite customers, fearing it would attract men with ulterior motives. But this man in front of her looked very respectable and honest. Lately, business had been bleak, and not even half a piece was sold in a day. Her daughter hadn't eaten enough, let alone seen the shadow of food. So, she plucked up the courage to ask.

  Mei Zi was never interested in rouge and powder, she shook her head, "Auntie, I'm not married yet, don't need these."

  The woman let out an "oh" and lowered her eyes, saying no more.

  Mei Zi had just turned around when she heard the little girl crying again, shouting "Fan Fan". She suddenly realized that this mother and daughter might be in a difficult situation. Her heart softened, and she turned back.

  "Auntie, although I'm not married yet, I can still buy for my sisters." But what if White Lotus and Green Chrysanthemum don't want such inferior goods? "Can I take a look?"

  The woman's waxen face suddenly brightened. "Young master, just flip through it and take a look. If you buy more, I'll give you a discount."

  Moyu smiled and lowered her head to take a look. She didn't expect to find anything good at such an old stall anyway, but since she wasn't poor, if she was going to spend money, buying something useful was better than buying something useless.

  "Is the young master from Shangdu?" The woman didn't mean to divert attention away from Mozi's goods, it's just that vendors always had to chat with customers for a bit, otherwise how would they get repeat business?

  "No, I've only been here for less than two months." Mozi was preoccupied with something else and picked up a box of Chenzhou rouge, sniffing it under the woman's expectant gaze before putting it down. "Auntie isn't from around here, is she? The words 'poor' and 'rich' are often used in this prosperous city, but those who are truly impoverished are mostly outsiders."

  "The woman is a refugee from the Jade Tomb, who got separated from her husband and son on the way. She brought her two-year-old daughter to Beijing to seek refuge with relatives, but was met with cold shoulders and had her money stolen by them. With no place to settle down, she could only sell her jewelry to make a living by doing small business, but it's hard to do business. As a woman, I am not familiar with the local customs, the government does not give me a household registration, taxes are high, and for every ten cents of income, three cents have to be paid in taxes, leaving only five cents as capital. Now, I don't wish for anything else, but hope that my husband and eldest son can come to Beijing soon and reunite with me and our daughter." As she spoke, tears began to flow from her eyes.

  Mozi heard that she was from Yuling, so he lost interest in selecting goods, and lightly stirred the goods in the small cabinet with his hand, asking the woman, "Has Yuling really been destroyed?"

  The woman nodded, and said with indignation, "On the day I left the palace, it was when the Great Su barbarian cavalry entered our imperial palace. My husband escaped from the palace in a hurry, hastily took us away, without even having time to pack up, lock the door, or inform the servants who scattered. It's really a disaster from heaven. On the road, all we heard were bad news. The king passed away, the queen committed suicide, the only prince was captured, and the princesses became the wives and playthings of the barbarians. It's simply terrifying to hear. I heard that it was because there were traitors in our own country who colluded with the enemy, so the Great Su army broke through our naval defense and took the palace. Although the traitor has been executed, it's too late now." She wasn't originally poor, her family had more than a dozen servants, but now she had to endure hunger for days.

  Mozi somewhat admired this woman, who had lost everything overnight and yet was still able to start a small business to support herself and her daughter after going through so much.

  The texture has changed, it's a good wood that remains cool and refreshing on the fingertips even in the scorching summer, without any roughness or coarseness, with beautiful wood grain, so smooth, and also has the luster of jade.

  There is a unique tree in the Jade Tomb, which only grows by the spring water and is called the Spring Tree. The Spring Tree is rare, this wood is the heartwood of the Spring Tree, the tree withers but the heartwood becomes jade, the older it gets the redder and more translucent it becomes, like blood. When taking the wood, if one is slightly careless, the heartwood will die and turn to ash immediately. This heartwood often enters the palace as tribute and is made into various ornaments, cherished by the imperial family and noblewomen.

  According to the books read by Mozi, the ornaments made of Quan Xinmu were often used as tokens of affection among royal nobles, not only because of the complexity and precision of the craftsmanship involved, but also because of the meaning represented by the heartwood.

  She had lost all her past memories, but when it came to wood, she always knew at a touch. Now, what her fingertips were probing was indeed the Spring Heart Wood.

  Purple-black lowered eyelids, moving those cheap goods away, saw a bright red comb lying quietly there.

  In an instant, the sky collapsed and the earth cracked in front of me, and someone sang loudly in my heart.

  "Brushing with her, I am delighted; Brushing with her, I am joyful; I and she brushing, our affection grows long; I and she brushing, until our hair turns white..."

  Don't sing anymore, don't sing anymore. Mozi's head suddenly hurt so much it felt like it was going to explode, and he hugged his hands together, squatting on the ground, his eyes already unable to see things clearly.

  Please stop singing, she's going to die!

  Who is it? Who on earth is it?

  When Ziqiang San Niang got married, she had never suffered from headaches before and thought that the past would never come back to haunt her. She calmly accepted this possibility. Nothing was wrong. Every time she got a headache, it felt as if her soul was being stripped away, making her terrified and uneasy. She always felt that the past wouldn't be very pleasant. Those fragmented memories, happy ones, only existed in childhood, then came the overwhelming anxiety of adulthood, grand but desolate.

  When she met Daqiu and Ye'er, she had a feeling of horror that seemed to be about to emerge from her memory, but was suppressed by herself. However, the shock brought by this spring heart wood comb, she was powerless to suppress.

  In an instant, his heart was torn apart.

  The first update of 2,000 words.

  The second update will also be 2000 words, I'm still not fully recovered physically, but I'll start repaying debts.

  Thanks for not rushing me, muah muah.

  Chapter 159: Su Su and the Girl (Part 1)

  Chapter 159: Brushing Hair with a Girl at the Website