The Twelve Years: Song of the Unsung Friends

The carved lanterns were blown around by the night breeze, round and round, round and round.

The lights and shadows are shaking, intertwined like illusions.

As if back to the ancestral home of the Shen family.

She stared at the lantern for a while, but couldn't tell whether it was dreaming or waking up, life or death.

On the day of marrying to Fu's house, there were no guests, so I went through the scene.

She sat in the room and lifted her hijab. She saw a little girl with her arms folded like an adult, leaning against the door, and looking at her: "Are you the wife my third brother gave to the fourth brother?"

This little girl is the sixth lady of the Fu family, born to the same mother with her husband-in-law, and is the only person who comes to see her today.

She didn't know how to deal with it, her temples were chilly, and she nodded lightly.

"I heard that you are my third brother's sweetheart? The tablet that asked you to marry the fourth brother is so that you can meet each other?" The little girl took two steps closer, and because of curiosity in her heart, she quickly put down and learned from the adults. Asked in a low voice, "Are you really a widow?"

Her gaze flickered slightly, and an unnoticeable embarrassment spread from the bottom of her eyes.

The little girl asked again: "My third brother wouldn't really kill your husband for you, right?"

She was silent, without explanation.

"Don't hurt my third brother." This is the final conclusion of the little girl.

When the little girl left, it started to rain.

She had nothing to do on her left or right, lay down in Dahongxibei, forced herself to fall asleep, and was awakened by a maid who came to close the window. She squinted her eyes, vaguely seeing the door slowly closing, she got up from the bed and got down to the ground.

In the 30th year of Guangxu, the Shen family was framed by treacherous people, all of them were cut off, and 371 heads fell to the ground. She was the only one rescued by her father’s students. She was concealed and survived humiliation. From the age of eleven to today, she almost forgot. I have also been called Miss. And the name Shen Xi is so strange.

It was supposed to be a ghost from the underworld, but he was alone in the Yang World.

When the wind blew, she tried to close the window, but she smelled the faint smell of opium between her fingers.

The dirty smell of the smokehouse made her immediately think of those smokers who were struggling with their hands and feet and tearing down. For a while, too many emotions surged, as if pressing her heart and lungs from below to her throat, breathless. In order to save her life that day, she followed the "third brother" mentioned by the little girl just now, and closed the wooden doors without asking her life or death, but she didn't know why she was saved? What can she do to save a woman who has never known her before?

She was full of thoughts and walked out of the Chuhua Gate.

People arrived on the veranda and were hearing louder. Two more.

The cough that was deliberately suppressed came from the front.

The two figures, both wearing suits, one of them wearing fake braids, and the other simply not wearing them, took out a white kimono, coughing lowly, and whispering to the people around them. The moment he saw him, he stopped, still coughing, raised his eyes slightly, and looked at her with an almost indifferent look.

Shen Xi was uncomfortable when he looked at him like this, and the sound of rain, louder, and low cough mixed together.

She heard her breathing forcefully, and even her throat began to itch, as if the pressure of this man felt that it was right to follow him in coughing, "San Ye," she whispered.

Fu Tongwen looked at her for a long time before moving his gaze to the people around him: "No one guards her yard?"

His voice was low, and weaker than in the smokehouse that night, and at the wedding banquet today.

Shen Xi didn't know why he thought of "softness", it might be related to his body. In other houses for the past ten days, I heard that Fu Sanye was in poor health since he was a child, and he was "spoiled" by a Western doctor when he was studying abroad, which greatly hurt his vitality. Perhaps because of this, he retired three times. Over thirty, all alone.

"Yes," the man with fake braids replied, "I guess there was a happy event today. No one thought that the bride would come out at night and relax."

People are no longer alive, how come to the bridal chamber?

Shen Xi's abdomen was slandered, his eyes turned sideways.

Fu Dongwen saw her thoughts and warned her straightforwardly: "So reckless, you won't be far from death." His tone was bad.

Shen Xi was slightly surprised.

Fu Tongwen winked at the man with fake braids. The other party understood what he meant, walked up to Shen Xi and leaned slightly. A gesture of courtesy between the foreign and the foreign, invited Shen Xi back.

That night, by the third shift, she was still sleeping on the bed and was unable to sleep deeply.

When it was about to dawn, she fell into a dream.

In my dream is a smokehouse, and the brick carvings on both sides of the broken door are carved with couplets: Nothing is as good as a smoke in your hand, you can see the moon in your life.

A group of loan sharks squatted by the smokehouse door all year round, blocking every smoker who went out. At the back door, there are often people collecting corpses, and people who have died in the smokehouse are transported away. That night, a smoker walked through the vestibule, picked a wooden bed, threw out a few copper plates, and began a hazy nightlife. No one knows that this smoker was a small or small official, and he was even promoted to two ranks because of the informer of the "Reformation Party". Of course, except for Shen Xi.

She recognized this person from the moment she started to burn the cigarette.

This person is inseparable from the ghost, and the gray sideburn smoker was once a student of her father and the person who informed the Shen family. The moment she recognized the culprit, her hands were shaking, but the other party only stretched out a hand to ask her for a cigarette. Smoky all night, she was afraid that he would see through her identity, but she was unwilling to let him go and fled alone. There was a **** who was going through the account books in the dark, and the grievances of Qianchen came to an end that night. She did not make up his mind to kill him, but he died under the smoke ointment she prepared for him. A few puffs of cigarettes passed by. This man who was already thin enough to lose his human form suddenly foamed at the mouth. Angrily, he recognized her. The enemy grabbed her trousers tightly, fell under the wooden bed, twitched twice in the dust, and died.

She wanted to send someone as an anonymous person to the back door, but she didn't expect that everything was going on under an invisible pair of eyes. She couldn't escape, she wanted to die, but was reported to the official. Not only officials, but also Fu Sanye.

The official came on horseback, and Fu Sanye sat in a car.

That night, Fu Tongwen settled the matter with silver. She heard the petty official still leaning out of the car window and whispered to him: "Shen family affairs, it is impossible to reverse the case, San Ye guaranteed her to be in trouble. I can't escape today, but I can't escape the future." She was sitting in the back seat of the car and heard him tell her in an almost certain voice: "If I can protect her tonight, I can protect her forever."

The tone is firm and strong.

But even Shen Xi knew that the Fu family was at a low point at this time.

The car drove away from the smoking hall and took her into the Fu's house.

Ten days later, she was arranged by Fu Sanye to marry her late fourth brother.

In just a few days, the alleys of the city have already speculated a lot about her life experience, and several versions have been circulated. It is said that she and Fourth Master Fu were childhood sweethearts. They were classmates studying abroad together. They were deeply in love, and Fourth Master died early, but still infatuated not to remarry into Fu's family, which was already underwhelmingly. It was also said that she was a married woman. , And fell in love with Fu Sanye, so he poisoned her husband and found a name to marry into Fu's family; even more absurd, said she was raised by Fu Sanye outside... Only no one mentioned her real life experience.

The truth was silently concealed.

The day after her wedding, she saw all the Fu family as a "new wife". In addition to Master Fu who returned to his hometown to raise malaria, the three unmarried ladies in the family, the uncle, the second master, the third master, and the little fifth master are all there, as well as master Fu's aunts and wives. Two of them have different facial features from those present here. People from North Korea. Uncle Fu followed Master Fu in the officialdom in the early years, and she was very stylish. When she appeared, she was fighting with Fu Erye for "constitutionalism" or "revolution."

Fu Sanye arrived late, entered the door, and chose the place farthest from her to sit down.

"Did the third brother go to drink wine last night, or did you call it a game?" Uncle Fu teased, "Can you tell me that you, the smoking woman and Pai Gow, can you give up the same thing? Take care of your body."

"It's better to have a cup in hand, eldest brother." He was so perfunctory, full of romance, and the smile from the corners of his mouth, with ridicule and disdain, flowed from the bottom of his eyes to the brows.

Fu Erye put out the tea cup and turned off the topic with a smile: "Someone sent a lottery to donate a lottery a few days ago. They said it was a funny game. Guess how much this jackpot is?" Five fingers are slightly open, "Fifty thousand silver dollars."

The ladies here are all inhaling gently.

So the topic in the hall turned from the constitution to the lottery.

Shen Xi was boring listening, looking down at his shoes, and by the way, noticed that Fu Dongwen was tilting his legs, and his left foot that fell on the ground was tapping lightly. She couldn't realize it, and with the beat, she suddenly heard her own heartbeat, and even guessed his impatience from it.

Suddenly, the tempting leather shoes stopped.

She looked over quietly, someone came in and was whispering in Fu Dongwen's ear. He got up to leave, and Uncle Fu teased again: "Which beautiful woman do you want to see again?" Fu Tongwen smiled slightly and glanced at Shen Xi deliberately.

She has not yet responded. The people in the hall have all kinds of suspicions, and in response to market rumors, they are more and more convinced.

The three masters really brought the disaster to the house.

In the afternoon that day, it was drizzling again.

She was taken to the veranda by the maid.

He is wearing a suit and coat, sitting on the temporary armchair of the imperial teacher, with the collar of his shirt open, and he is being diagnosed by a man in a doctor's white coat. The doctor's hand was inserted into his shirt and he listened carefully. Shen Xi thought that when he was in the smokehouse, those people talked about the bad luck of Western doctors wearing white clothes all day long.

When Fu Dongwen saw her, he raised his hand to indicate that the doctor retracted the stethoscope. Fu Dongwen threw the newspaper on the small table beside him and sneered: "A cigarette can kill the hero without seeing blood; half a lamp burns down the rural house and there is no ash. Qingxiang, you know what to say What is it?"

The doctor smiled faintly, and made a gesture of making a cigarette: "This."

Fu Tongwen nodded and looked at Shen Xi: "This is my fourth younger brother and sister from the Shen family in Guangdong, have you heard of it?"

Such a head-off thing was told to this man frankly.

"Fortunately, Miss Shen." The doctor didn't care and nodded to Shen Xi.

"Hello there."

The doctor seemed to know that Fu Tongwen was going to talk to her, put the things in the small box, and bid farewell to Shen Xi again. When the others disappeared, only her and Fu Dongwen were left here.

Wind and rain drifted into the veranda.

Fu Dongwen noticed that the collar of his shirt hadn't been fastened yet, and skillfully twisted the metal buttons with **** of his right hand.

Shen Xi walked to him in silence, kneeling silently.

He paused slightly.

"Thanks to Sanye Fu for her life-saving grace." Not only Sanye Fu has saved her over the years, but none of them left their names, or they have never seen each other so far. She knelt to pay his debts and also the countless righteous men.

"The Shen family used to follow Master Lin and ran for a smoking ban. This is righteous. The righteous should not end up with the Jiu Clan." He also raised his left hand slightly, working with both hands to fasten the last metal button, "No need to kneel. I."

Fu Dongwen gently moved his left hand away from the collar of the shirt, opened his palm, and stretched it out in front of her.

She had only heard about the Humen incident that shocked the ruling and opposition people back then. She had only heard about it from her father. She did not expect that the Fu Sanye in front of him would mention it.

"I asked you to marry my deceased brother, not to humiliate or make things difficult, but to arrange for you to leave," Fu Dongwen saw her in a daze. He directly held her wrist and helped her up. "The current situation is turbulent. The identity of the Fu family can leave."

"Where to go?"

"Britain, go to the place I've been to, and there will be my friends taking care of you," Fu Tongwen thought for a while, then said, "Or go to the United States, the doctor just now is a student of Yellut University, we Chinese are the first to return to China Western medical students."

Very far away, so far away that she never thought.

"Or, you want to go to Japan, the place where the Revolutionaries go most often."

There was a stormy sea in Shen Xi's heart, and he couldn't answer a word for a while.

In the end, Fu Dongwen made the conclusion: "Where can I arrange it as soon as possible, then go where, how?"

"Why do you want to go out?" Shen Xi asked the doubts in his mind, including for him, "Why would you want to stay abroad?"

Fu Tongwen was silent for a while, then whispered: "Teach the barbarians to develop skills to control the barbarians."

When he said this, there was a different light in his dark eyes.

Fu Dongwen seemed to have reached the limit of patience, or was unwell, stopped talking to her, and coughed lowly and depressedly. The top of the back of the Grand Master's chair and the tips of his head's hair were all wet by rain. He didn't realize it, and took out a pocket watch from his arms, as if waiting for something.

He noticed that she was still waiting, his eyes slipped slightly, and he looked elsewhere.

The continuous rain continued for thirteen days.

Before boarding the boat, the rain had not yet settled. She was rushed out from the back door in a hurry. She was sitting in Fu Tongwen’s car. In the car, two maidservants covered the windows with cloth. Shen Xi put on a dress not very skillfully. Before getting out of the car, almost I dropped the shoe on my foot. The silver dollar bag was stuffed into his hand, and there was a well-used leather suitcase.

Being sent aboard in this way, it became a delusion to want to see the savior one last time.

Fu Dongwen booked her a first-class ferry ticket, a small separate room, not spacious, but better than having a private space. But even under these conditions, she still couldn't adapt to the long sea journey.

Later on the deck, because of seasickness and vomiting faintly, I learned from the mouths of several young scholars beside her that on the day she boarded the ship, the Revolutionary Party had made a big move. No wonder she would be hurriedly sent away.

A few months later, the ship arrived at the port. Carrying an old leather suitcase, she saw the person who came to meet her, and immediately received a big hug: "Congratulations, you are no longer the impunity of the Jiu Clan!" "The man didn't care about her nervous defense, smiled and held her shoulders tightly, "The Emperor of Qing Dynasty abdicated, there will be no more crimes! Come on! Let's celebrate!"

Every Chinese who disembarked on the pier was telling each other the news. Some were astonished, and some were pleasantly surprised. The gust of wind from the pier accompanied by the huge wave of the times was blowing.

She finally understood what he said outside the smokehouse that night: If I can protect her tonight, I can protect her forever.

This is not a heroic demonstration of the old age, but a firm prophecy.

In 1912.

When she was still wandering at sea, her **** debts were completely wiped out, and there was no need to rehabilitate them, and no one would redress. She went from a death row prisoner to an ordinary person.

"By the way, this is from Mr. Fu. This letter has arrived one step earlier than you, please read it."

The man stuffed a letter in her hand. She held the letter tightly and couldn't wait to open it, but because of the person in front of her, she hesitated for three seconds. The man smiled and nodded at her before she opened the letter:

Please take care of everything, if not necessary, it is not good to see you again.

Fu Dongwen

January 1st

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oyeah, labor and management are back la la la

Oh, the word count for wedge has exploded. See you next week~mua~ (I'm exhausted by catching insects...