Liu Mingzhi panted and stopped in front of the Li residence on Changshun Street in Xing'anfang. Looking at the door as usual without any hangings, a glimmer of hope suddenly rose in his heart, and he rushed towards the mansion.
"Who dares... Mr. Liu? It's... you're here."
Liu Mingzhi looked at the dozen or so servants of Li House with white silk ribbons tied around their waists, and suddenly felt a little panicked. The glimmer of hope that had finally risen in his heart flew down like a golden crow falling to the ground.
"Your family... where is your wife?"
The middle-aged man among the servants whom Tao Ying even called "third brother" looked at Liu Mingzhi's sharp gaze and pointed with a sad expression in the direction of Tao Ying's boudoir in the inner courtyard.
"Liu... Mr. Liu, my wife...she...she is waiting for you in the main hall of the boudoir!"
Liu Mingzhi's heart sank suddenly as he looked at his third brother's dejected expression. He didn't have time to ask any more questions, so he ran towards the inner courtyard of Li's house at a loss.
Young Master Liu's figure had just disappeared under the corridor when Tao Ying's personal maid Huan'er ran into the mansion door panting and dripping with sweat. She pressed her hands on her knees and looked breathlessly at a group of servants.
"Third brother, where is Mr. Liu?"
"Mr. Liu has just gone to the inner courtyard, and it's not even half a cup of tea. Miss Huan'er, are you okay? Do you want to rest..."
Before the third brother finished his sentence, Huan'er endured the pain in his feet and trotted towards the inner courtyard again to catch up.
More than a dozen servants looked at each other and sighed silently. Their status did not allow them to set foot in the inner courtyard. The lady's personal maid chased after her without saying anything, and they had no choice but to continue hesitantly in the center of the outer courtyard.
Waited.
With a muffled clang, the door of Tao Ying's boudoir was violently pushed open by Liu Mingzhi, and the two doors kept shaking and creaking on the door frames.
Liu Mingzhi's body trembled, and he stared blankly at the exquisite coffins placed in the main hall of the room. His knees suddenly softened and he almost collapsed on the ground.
Liu Mingzhi stared at the coffin in the room with a ferocious expression for a while before he came back to his senses. He glanced around the room with clenched fists. He wanted to go straight into the room and go to the coffin, but he didn't have the courage.
"Tao Ying, your joke is a bit too big, it's not funny at all. Can you please stop playing it?
Come out quickly and shout three numbers to my husband. If you don't come out, my husband will be really angry.
You understand my husband. If my husband is really angry, you won’t be able to coax me if I don’t pay a price.
Come out quickly! I know you like to joke, but I don't like your joke of placing the coffin in the main hall. Don't you think this kind of joke is too unlucky?
Tao Ying! Tao Ying! Tao Ying!
Come out quickly! Come out quickly!
I beg you, please stop hiding it!
As long as you come out obediently, I will promise you everything from now on and I will never quarrel with you again.
I will listen to you whatever you say. If you ask me to go east, I will never go west, okay?"
After Liu Mingzhi finished speaking with a slightly tearful voice, he stared closely at the extremely silent beauty's boudoir, his eyes involuntarily becoming sour.
Looking at the beauty's boudoir where there had been no movement for a long time, Liu Mingzhi held the door frame and looked behind the screen and choked with sobs: "Tao Ying! Tao Ying.
Good sister, good sister.
Can you stop being naughty? You are afraid of your husband.
Really scared.
Come out quickly, okay? Stop making such jokes!
I beg you for my husband, come out quickly!"
Liu Mingzhi was hysterically pleading to the empty boudoir. The threshold seemed to be an insurmountable chasm between Liu Mingzhi and the coffin in the main room.
After a long time, the only thing that responded to Liu Mingzhi was the draft in the boudoir and the exquisite coffin placed in the main room. Other than that, there was no movement at all.
The sound of footsteps came from Yuanyuan, and Huan'er stopped outside the boudoir, dripping with sweat. She didn't bother to wipe the fine sweat on her pretty face. She looked at the door with sad eyes, holding on to the threshold and talking to herself in Tao Ying's boudoir.
Young Master Liu's lips parted slightly.
"Liu... Mr. Liu."
Liu Mingzhi glanced back at the panting Huan'er behind him with dull eyes. After staring at Huan'er for a while, his big hand holding on to the door frame dropped weakly.
Silently turning his head and staring at the coffin placed in the main room for a long time, Liu Mingzhi lifted the coffin as if it was as heavy as a stone, as if two Mount Tai were tied to his ankles, and stepped hard into the regular threshold with his legs.
"Mr. Liu, my young lady has really...already...
Your condolences!"
Liu Mingzhi turned a deaf ear to Huan'er's sad words of admonishment, and walked towards the coffin that was close at hand with a dull expression.
Putting his hands gently on the unsealed coffin as if making a move, Liu Mingzhi looked straight into the coffin.
I saw that Tao Ying's skin was as good as snow, and she was dressed in a plain white gauze Yunyan Shang. The Yunyan Shang, as thin as cicada wings, tightly wrapped the beautiful lady's graceful and exquisite jade body, and a pair of jade hands that defied the frost and snow were quietly touching each other.
At the ribbon on the flat belly.
The ink-like hair that was originally tied up now reached the waist of the beautiful lady Liu, spread under Tao Ying's slender jade body, and lost its former luster.
The pair of delicate and delicate almond-shaped eyes that were full of endless temptation in the past are still closed tightly at this moment, and the long eyelashes cover the eyelids motionless.
The beauty's skin is like jade and slightly pale, her eyebrows are like crescent moon, and her lips are a little red.
Tao Ying, who was lying in the coffin, was as peaceful as a sleeping fairy at this moment. However, this sleeping fairy-like beauty no longer had any vitality at this time and had already died.
Tao Ying was dressed in plain white Yunyan Shang, with no powder on her jade cheeks, but she was more beautiful than thousands of beauties in the world. Only the ordinary cherry blossom hairpin between her jet-black hair became the only thing on her body.
embellishments.
And that cherry blossom hairpin was the one that she and Liu Mingzhi bought after shopping around half of the capital on November 24, her birthday, last year. The price was right and the hairpin was satisfactory.
It happened that this hairpin, which was given as a birthday gift, became the only embellishment on her body.
Liu Mingzhi tremblingly placed his palm on Tao Ying's cold and slightly stiff cheek, and the mist in his eyes kept swirling.
"Tao Ying! Good sister!
After sleeping for so long, it’s time to get up, right?
I know it's my fault that I didn't say hello to you before I left home, but how could you...how could you punish me like this?
How can you punish me?"
"Mr. Liu! Before my young lady dies, I asked my servant to hand it over to you..."
"Huan'er, please wait outside. Sister Tao Ying is asleep. I want to chat with her."
"Master Liu!"
"go out!"
Huan'er's delicate body trembled, and she looked at Liu Mingzhi who hesitated for a while, then silently gave him a blessing.
"Yes, I will leave this slave."
After Huan'er exited Tao Ying's boudoir, Liu Mingzhi caressed Tao Ying's cheek and remained silent for a while. The tears that kept rolling in his eyes could no longer be held back and flowed down silently.
A heart-wrenching pain lingered throughout my body, a pain that was ten times, a hundred times more intense than the heartache of self-blame after Ruyi's death.
It's like a piece of my heart has been torn out alive.
With a little force of his arms, he lifted Tao Ying's silent jade body out of the coffin. Liu Mingzhi carried Tao Ying with difficulty and walked toward the bed behind the screen.
Liu Mingzhi carefully placed Tao Ying's jade body on the bed, and gently opened the neatly folded brocade quilt to wrap Tao Ying's stiff jade body. Liu Mingzhi held Tao Ying tightly in his arms and cried silently.
With tears.
"Spring has just begun, and the weather is still very cold! You have been lying like this for four days without even covering yourself with a quilt. What if you get cold?
My husband will keep you warm and you will not be cold when you cover yourself with a quilt.
Tao Ying, we are not cold, we are not cold.
If my husband holds you while you sleep, we won't be cold anymore.
Silly Tao Ying! Why are you doing this?
Why do you punish me like this? Uh-huh...why do you punish me like this?"
Liu Mingzhi suppressed the deep pain in his heart and cried softly.
"Hey, when did such a heroic, handsome young gentleman set up a stall and tell fortunes in the capital?
Sister, I have nothing to do, so I want to try your hexagram skills!"
"Whether my sister is missing you in her life or not, we have to see if you, my good brother, can make my sister think about you day and night and have trouble sleeping and eating."
"Good brother, have you never seen a woman's breasts? If you keep staring at them, be careful and your eyes will pop out.
Besides, if you want to see it, just go home with your sister. When the time comes, your sister will let you feast your eyes on it openly, so why do you need to be as sneaky as you are now?
Do you dare to go home with your sister?"
"..."
"Liu Mingzhi, you and I have an sworn hatred."
"I couldn't avenge my husband, but I lost my virginity to you. It's not a pity for Tao Ying to die."
"Good brother, you are a good emperor who serves the country and the people. You must treat the people of the world well!"
"My sister wants a birthday that she will never forget, can you do it?"
"This scene of flourishing smoke and clouds is the most beautiful picture in the world, isn't it?"
"You promised me, do you want to go back on your word?"
"Good husband, thank you for giving me such an unforgettable birthday. I will never forget it for the rest of my life. Love me!"
"You are not only the head of a family, but also the king of a country. How can you only stay at home with me and love your children?
Promise sister, you must put the people of the world first!"
"Liu Mingzhi!"
"Um?"
"It's nothing. Happy New Year. When you go home, you must treat your wife and children well."
"Sure, I don't need your good sister to teach me this, my little brother can do it too."
"Liu Mingzhi?"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"I just want to call you. After all, I can call the king of a country by his surname. Of course, sister, I have to call him properly.
Liu Mingzhi."
"Why!"
"Liu Mingzhi!"
"Why!"
"Husband!"
"Uh-huh! Lady!"
The scenes of getting along with Tao Ying in the past could not help but linger in his mind. Liu Mingzhi held Tao Ying's cold and stiff hands tightly and cried bitterly.
"Tao Ying! Tao Ying! This young master will never forgive you in his life.
You bad woman, you big liar."
Liu Mingzhi rested his chin on Tao Ying's hair and kept rubbing it. Tears flowed along the beauty's hair and onto the beauty's cheeks, slowly sliding towards Tao Ying's heart.
"Shouldn't committing suicide just be an ancient rumor? Shouldn't it be just a rumor?
Tao Ying, you died for Li Yunlong, have you ever considered me?
You just left without saying goodbye, what should I do? What should I do?"