He knew that he was definitely not that lucky!
Zhangsun Lie angrily took the painting and walked into his parents 'room. He was so angry that he no longer cared about his upbringing and kicked open the door with his foot.
Zhangsun Cangneng and Bai Fengyi, who were sipping tea on a small tea stool, were shocked by the sound of Zhangsun Lie kicking the door open.
"Son, didn't I teach you to open the door properly?" Bai Fengyi immediately mocked.
Zhangsun Lie glared at his parents and fell into the armchair beside the window."You must have known. You must have known that Grandpa would announce his scheme in front of everyone today!”
"Lie, if you don't change your stubborn personality, you definitely won't be able to achieve anything great." Zhangsun Cangneng frowned and reprimanded.
" I'm naughty?" Zhangsun Lie almost jumped up from his armchair in anger at his father's words.
"Humph! If I'm naughty, then you definitely haven't seen the faces of the others.”
When the old man announced in front of all the guests in the hall that he wanted the twelve cousins to leave the Zhangsun family and search for their wives and granddaughters-in-law all over the country, the twelve of them were almost scared silly.
When they saw the manager holding a pile of paintings, they immediately wanted to rush out of the door in the hall!
"Your father is doing this for the good of you twelve brothers. Look at him, he knows that all of you are busy, so when he is out doing business, he even helped you find a good candidate for a wife so that you don't have to go through the trouble of screening. Now, I just want you to find the person according to the portrait. This shouldn't be difficult for you, right?”
"Difficult!" Zhangsun Lie retorted. "How would I know if those women of unknown origins are compatible with the twelve of us? How could he be so sure that we would listen to him and go find those women?”
Zhangsun Cangneng shook his head and helplessly held his wife's hand. "I knew it. Even if we hide in the room, we can't hide from our precious son.”
Bai Fengyi smiled sweetly. "Although the wails of those children are indeed very satisfying, if we were surrounded by twelve dissatisfied children, we wouldn't be able to escape. Therefore, we can still be considered lucky now.”
"If Father doesn't handle the matter well, I think these children will make a fuss for a long time until they feel resigned to this matter." Zhangsun Cang could touch his wife's delicate skin and give her a gentle smile.
Bai Fengyi tilted her head and smiled. Her coquettish appearance made Zhangsun Cang's heart palpitate. He held his chest and sighed.
"My beloved wife, your beauty is suffocating me.”
When Zhangsun Lie heard his father's sweet words to his mother, goosebumps instantly stood on his skin. His entire body trembled as he rubbed his arms. So disgusting! Father was already so old, yet he could even say such sweet words.
Bai Fengyi's rosy lips curled up slightly, and her cheeks flushed red.
"Cang Neng, you're still as handsome as ever. Every time I go out with you, I'm worried that you'll fall for those women and not love me anymore.”
Zhangsun Cang could lift Bai Fengyi's chin and lightly touch her lips with his finger. "Don't say that. I'm not interested in those mediocre women outside. Besides, I love you so much.”
Bai Fengyi was overjoyed to hear her husband say this. "Really?"
"Of course."
"Enough!" Zhangsun Lie finally couldn't stand it anymore. He threw the scroll in his hand forward and directly onto the table. The red silk thread that was tied to it was not tightly tied and loosened in mid-air. The scroll lay open on the table, and half of the beautiful woman inside was exposed.
Zhangsun Cang was able to open the entire scroll.
Cherry red, skin as smooth as butter, collar like a deer, teeth like a gourd rhinoceros, eyebrows like a crescent moon, a beautiful smile and beautiful eyes, a shy and delicate appearance.
"She's very beautiful and elegant. What are you dissatisfied with?" Zhangsun Cang could look left and right, up and down, upside down, but he couldn't see such a beauty. How could his son not be satisfied?
Zhangsun Lie rushed over and snatched the painting away. He held it tightly in his hand and quickly rolled up the entire painting.
"I'm not satisfied with any of them!"
"All of them?" Even Bai Fengyi couldn't stand it. "Not satisfied with all of them? Son, other people would fight for such a girl.”
"Then give it to them." Zhangsun Lie was so angry that he fell back into the armchair.
"You have to listen carefully to what your father announced in the hall. You have to bring your wife back this time next year, or your father will skin you alive.”
"What exactly does he want?"
"He doesn't want to do anything. It's just that waiting for you twelve brothers to take the initiative to get married and have children is too slow, so he can only do it himself.”Zhangsun Cang cleared his throat. "It's all thanks to your father that he helped you twelve find these girls while doing business outside. It saved you all the trouble.”
"No one wants him to be nosy."
"How can it be meddlesome? Find her and get married. Then, no one will bother you with the matter of getting married in the future.”Bai Fengyi was puzzled.
How could the third generation of the Zhangsun Clan view marriage as a deadly punishment? Isn't it good to start a family early? She and Cang Neng had gotten married very early.
"Hmph, is that so? If we get married, no one will bother me with the matter of getting married in the future?" Zhangsun Lie snorted." If she was a hen that couldn't lay eggs after we got married, wouldn't he ask me to marry a concubine under the guise of continuing the family line? Are you sure it won't happen?"
"This…" Zhangsun Cangneng and Bai Fengyi looked at each other.
"Then don't bother me with the marriage matter anymore. I still have five people above me. No matter what, it's their turn first, not mine!”Zhangsun Lie stood up and left, but he suddenly stopped at the door. After thinking for a while, he said,"Also, don't even think about asking me to look for the woman in this painting. I don't have that much free time.”
With a bang, Zhangsun Lie vented all his dissatisfaction on the two fragile doors. The doors were thrown hard by him. Not only did they make a loud sound when they closed, but they even bounced open due to the violent force.
"Lie is really unhappy." Bai Fengyi took a sip of tea.
"He will get used to it very soon. Once Father nags at them all day long, they will definitely escape before they completely collapse. Whether they go out to find a wife or take refuge, our big house will definitely be quiet for a few days. When the time comes, we couples will go to West Lake together for a few months to enjoy the scenery and relive the carefree days without children.”
Bai Fengyi still felt that something was wrong. She was the one who gave birth to that child. How could she not understand his bad temper? He was very stubborn! If she insisted on ordering him to do something, he would resist even more. It seemed that he would probably not go to that girl obediently this time.
"Fengyi, what are you thinking about?" Zhangsun Cang held Bai Fengyi's hand and patted it.
"I think that among the twelve children, Retsu is probably the most difficult to deal with.”
"How do you know?" Zhangsun Cang pulled his beloved wife over and let her lie against his warm and strong chest. His big arms wrapped around her waist, and his chin caressed her beautiful black hair.
"That child's personality is so stubborn. He has the right to dominate over others. Look at him. With his personality, even if his father nagged at him all day long, he would pretend not to hear it and refuse to go out to look for her.”
Zhangsun Cang laughed. "Compared to Father, that kid is like Dao and Devil. As the saying goes, the Dao is one foot higher, and the Devil is ten feet higher. Anyway, it's none of our business. We just need to quietly watch the show from the side.”
Bai Fengyi wrapped her arms around Zhangsun Cangneng's waist and pinched the tip of his nose.
"Are you still considered her father?”
Once Zhangsun Lie entered his room, he slammed the door shut and snuggled into his armchair.
The armchair under him was carved with black sandalwood and looked like a lotus flower. It was a pair of armchairs with the one in his parents 'room. It was originally a gift from the emperor to his parents, but he liked it and snatched it over. The pair of things were forcibly separated by him.
But he liked it, and he was domineering. As long as he liked something, he would take it. If he didn't like it, he would force it on him. He still didn't want it. Just like a daughter-in-law that his father had found for him, if he didn't want it, he didn't want it!
"Where's the Sixth Young Master?"
Suddenly, a commotion came from outside the door. The maids and men were all making a scene.
Zhangsun Lie's heart sank. He immediately got up and hid in the small dark room behind the bed. He had discovered this small dark room when he was young. At that time, it was more than enough to accommodate a child like him. But now that he had grown up, it would be really miserable to hide in this dark room again. He was completely stuck in the dark room and had no room to turn around.
Zhangsun Lie closed his eyes and sighed helplessly.
A servant girl came in.
"Sixth Young Master, Sixth Young Master, are you in the room?”After the servant girl shouted a few times, she seemed to feel impatient and stomped her feet in anger. Even if she was unhappy, she did not dare to express her displeasure in her voice.
"Sixth Young Master, are you there?" The servant girl went behind the screen and called out a few times before coming out."Is he really not in the room?"
"Xiao Shui, is Sixth Young Master in the room?”A servant girl poked her head in.
The servant girl called Xiao Shui who had been searching the room earlier showed an impatient expression.
"No, the sixth young master is not in the room."
"Where did Sixth Young Master go? Old Master is looking for him anxiously. Could Sixth Young Master have slipped into the streets?”
Little Shui raised her eyebrows, her face full of disdain. "With Sixth Young Master's temper, he might have already slipped out.”
"Then it's better to send someone out to look for it.”
" It's so troublesome. Every time I look for the Sixth Young Master, I have to look for him for a long time." Xiao Shui pulled the door shut and her complaints gradually faded away.
Zhangsun Lie sighed and slowly walked out of the dark room. He sat down at the table and poured himself a glass of water to soothe his throat.
His gaze fell on the painting scroll that was placed on the table when he entered the door. The cold wind blew open the scroll, revealing a lifelike portrait of a beauty. The person in the painting held a jade comb and combed her black hair like velvet. She was dressed in a plain white dress with a green belt around her waist. Her delicate face and stunning facial features were indeed a beauty.
Suddenly, his heart rippled. His rapid breathing shocked him so much that he couldn't help but hold his chest. He forcefully suppressed the inexplicable throbbing, and his body trembled slightly.
What was he throbbing for!
It was just a woman. It was not like he had never seen a woman before. He had seen many women with such beauty. He could easily grab a handful of them in the Jade Spring Courtyard. He did not want to abandon those charming women in the Jade Spring Courtyard for her.
Zhangsun Lie pushed the scroll far away in a fit of pique. He casually picked up a cup of hot tea and took a sip, but an inexplicable thought still pestered him. No matter how far away he pushed the painting, no matter how much he wanted to ignore the beauty in the painting, the figure of that peerless beauty became clearer in his heart.
"Damn it!" He needed to calm down. He suspected that his father had sprinkled some poison powder on the painting to make him so sad.
He wanted to go out for some fresh air and calm down!
Beijing
Before Chengzu, Beijing was called Peiping, and Nanjing was the capital. After Chengzu, the capital was changed to Nanjing and Beijing to the capital. Because Chengzu was stationed in Beijing, he did not return to the south in the 15th year of Yongle. The political center of the Ming Dynasty officially moved to Beijing, which was the capital. Nanjing, the capital of the early Ming Dynasty, officially disappeared in the 7th year of Yongle.
Since Beijing had become the political center, all the goods in the country would eventually flow here. Also, the tribute from each country was accompanied by more goods than other places.
Beijing was a lively place with too many strange people and strange things. Nothing was magical here. The only thing was that the people here were still legends.
Rumor had it that in a small alley in the southernmost part of Beijing, there was a simple thatched cottage with two frail women living inside. Among them, the young woman was quiet, elegant, and compassionate. The other woman was already middle-aged. The two of them wore plain white clothes all year round, and the emerald green belts around their waists made them look special.
Why did these two women become legends?
It was because their medical skills were superb and they were merciful. There was no one they could not save or cure.
This was what people said about them.
In fact, the two of them were mother and daughter. Their surnames were Yi. Their mother's full name had long been forgotten with the passage of time. People only called her Yi Huatuo.
His daughter's name was Yi Qiling, and she was just like her name. Her sentimental heart was deliberately hidden under her cold appearance. With her soft heart, she could show love to anything, regardless of whether it was male or female, old or young, rich or poor.
With their magical medical skills, they could live in a better place. They could even live in a big house instead of such a simple thatched cottage made of earth. Other than the house in the middle of the courtyard where they lived, slept, and ate, the rest of the open space was filled with medicinal herbs that were exposed to the sun. There were many long benches arranged beside the wall for the patients to sit on.
Today, there was still a long line of patients. Yi Huatuo was inside treating patients while Yi Qiling was at the side, taking medicine and handling trivial matters.
"Aunt Liu, are you feeling better?”Yi Qiling smiled lightly, making people feel at ease, to ease the pain. What sick people needed the most was the comfort of such gentle and kind people.
Aunt Liu pulled Yi Qiling's hand and patted the back of her hand. "Much better. Yi Huatuo's medical skills are superb. Before I came to see Yi Huatuo, I had seen countless doctors, but none of them were able to cure him. She had only come here once, but not only did she feel much better, but she also felt refreshed.”
"Auntie, my mother told me that your body has almost recovered. Today, you can just take the medicine back and boil it. There's no need to come back.”
When Aunt Liu heard that her body had almost recovered and that she only needed to drink some medicine, she was so happy that she pulled Yi Qiling's hand. "Really? I've seen so many doctors but they couldn't cure me. I only came to see Yi Huatuo once and he recovered. Did I hear wrongly?”
"You didn't hear wrongly. That's what my mother said. Take this medicine back and boil it in three bowls of water.”
Taking the medicine from Yi Qiling's hands, Aunt Liu was moved to tears. "Thank you, thank you so much, Yi Huatuo!”
Aunt Liu took the medicine and hurried back after taking a few steps."Look at me, I'm too happy. I haven't given you the money for the medicine yet. How much?”
"No need. My mother said that this medicine doesn't cost money.”
"How can this be! How can I not charge you?"
"I picked the medicine myself.”
"This won't do!" Aunt Liu forced Yi Qiling to pay with silver.
"Auntie, there's really no need. We're happier if you take care of your body than if you give us money. If you really want to give us money for medicine, you might as well buy some tonics to nourish your body.”
Aunt Liu was touched as she held Yi Qiling's hand. "You and your mother are really Bodhisattvas who have reincarnated.”
After sending Aunt Liu off, there was still a bunch of people waiting in line to see a doctor. There were so many patients visiting every day, but only poor people came. Why would rich people come to such a place to see a doctor? They were either looking for the so-called famous doctors in their hearts or imperial doctors. They did not care about doctors like Yi Huatuo, who made his fortune by relying on legends.
However, there were still many poor families in the city, which was why the legend of Yi Huatuo had spread so fiercely.
If it was not necessary, Yi Huatuo would not charge for medical treatment. It was equivalent to voluntarily treating these people, and their source of income was also dependent on these poor people. Because they were embarrassed that they did not pay for the treatment, the patients would send some to them as long as their crops were harvested.
"Lady Yi." Aunt Liu, who had just left, returned with a few more handfuls of vegetables in her hands.
Yi Qiling turned around. "Aunt Liu?"
"Lady Yi, I'm sorry that I didn't pay for two visits. Here, these are the vegetables that we planted ourselves. I know you and your mother are vegetarian, so I quickly picked a few worthless vegetables for you.”
"Aunt Liu."
"Take it. If you don't take it, I'll be embarrassed.”
"Thank you, Auntie."
"Ling 'er." Yi Huatuo's gentle voice came from the room.
"Aunt Liu, my mother is calling me. I'll go in first.”When Yi Qi Ling heard this, he hurriedly bid farewell to Aunt Liu and rushed into the house without waiting for Aunt Liu's reply.
"You have the heart of a Bodhisattva." Aunt Liu shook her head and smiled.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]