Murong Lian was smoking a water pipe on a spring couch in the inner courtyard. There were a few idle books and a pot of wine on the head of the bed.
Seeing that Gu Mang came in, he took a big sip of floating life like a dream, breathed it out slowly, and said to the servants at his left and right, "Go down
first."
"Yes."
The servants retired, leaving only two of them in the courtyard.
Murong Lian lied on the bamboo couch, but he didn't look at Gu Mang. He just knocked at the ashes in the tobacco pipe, and then took it back to his mouth again. He sneered, "The fireball is really interesting, sending a special envoy to my house, who is still wearing a mask and a cape - well, what's the matter?"
Gu Mang said, "It's me."
Murong heard his voice and was choked by the smoke he inhaled. "Cough!" A few moments later, he got up and many emotions flashed on his face, such as shock, anxiety, hatred, hesitation… There were even complex emotions that others couldn't see through.
"You? What are you going to do here as a special envoy? Get beaten up?"
Except for a few people in Chonghua, no one knew that Gu Mang was now in a state of memory recovery. Naturally, Gu Mang would not show too much lucidity in front of Murong Lian. He was a spy who had been dormant in Liaoguo for five years. It was not difficult for him to disguise himself. So he pretended to be blunt and said, "Don't be angry. I'm returning your things."
"..."
"The Lord said that you can't ask for the benefits of others. So I'll return this ring to you."
Then he took off the sapphire ring and handed it to Murong Lian. "Thank you for giving it to me, but it doesn't work. I don't like it."
"..."
Murong Lian seemed to have been greatly insulted and almost didn't jump up. "Do you know what you're talking about?"
"There are hundreds of such things in Xihe's house. If you like the shiny little ring, I can give you more."
"Fart! What can he do with that?" Murong Lian angrily seized it. "This is -"
Gu Mang waited for him calmly.
"This, this, but..." Murong Lian seemed to choke. After choking for a while, some light flickered in his eyes. Then he said viciously, "Forget it. I'll tell you what to do with this. This was originally borrowed from you. When did it become a gift? Even if you didn't come, I'd go to Xihe mansion in two days to ask for it. You don't have to be affectionate to me!"
He spoke, putting the ring back on his thumb.
Gu Mang sighed in his heart. As expected, Murong Lian would not tell him the secret of this ring so easily. However, he just wanted to have a try. The purpose of his visit to Wangshu mansion was to come back and have a look. There were still some traces in the mansion that he missed too much.
Murong Lian saw that he didn't speak very much, stared at him and looked back and forth for a while, and asked, "What's the matter? Stupid from being tortured by Zhou He? It's an echo."
Gu Mang said bluntly, "I'm not stupid."
After a pause, he glanced at Murong Lian's pipe and said, "The one who smokes this is stupid."
"You --"
Gu Mang said, "You are going to be angry again. You are always angry. Well, I'm a good wolf, don't make you unhappy. The delivery is over. I'm going back.
Farewell."
Murong Lian looked at him and turned around. His narrow eyes squinted suddenly. When Gu Mang went to the side of the Yueyuan gate in the courtyard, Murong Lian suddenly said a gloomily, "Stop."
He walked to Gu Mang's side, looked around him and said, "Gu Mang. How come I remember before you went to bat island… A lot of consciousness has been restored?"
"..."
The slender long golden pipe stretched out, hooked against Gu Mang's chin, and lifted it forcibly. Murong Lian narrowed his peach blossom eyes and said, "You don't think you are a wolf, do you?"
"..."
"Let me see… Are you here today to mourn your Aunt Yi?"
Gu Mang was surprised.
Then he turned his face and said, "Who is that?"
"..." Murong Lian didn't say a word. He stared at Gu Mang for a while.
The two men were in a stalemate. There was a breeze in the courtyard, which made Gu Mang's cloak and sleeves flutter. Murong Lian said, "You really can't remember who she is?"
Gu Mang shook his head.
"You'd better not lie to me. You have been with me for so long, and you should be very clear about the consequences of deceiving me."
"I don't know. I can't understand what you're talking about."
Gu Mang spoke, lifting his hand to Murong Lian's pipe against his chin. His nose wrinkled. "It's really smelly. How can you like it?" After that, he sneezed, turned around and walked out of without turning back.
He pretended to seem to be calm, but his heart was pounding.
——How could Murong Lian suddenly mention Aunt Lin to him?
Only a few people knew about his memory restoration. Was it someone who let Murong Lian know? Or perhaps Murong Lian was not sure, just testing…
The whole way he walked with drums in his heart. He went out of Wangshu mansion. Gu Mang stood still and thought for a moment, but couldn't get any clue. At last, he sighed and decided not to think about it any more, but took a detour to Jiang mansion.
He really couldn't stand Murong Lian's smoking. Murong Lian was very wild. He had no father since he was a child. His mother, Madam Zhao, had never been able to see him since she died. He had never married. In fact, he was a noble master in gold and silver, and a bachelor who did not care about his death.
Gu Mang thought that he couldn't go on like this, so he planned to go to Pharmacist Jiang to give Murong Lian a prescription to quit smoking while he was still alive.
When he arrived at Jiang mansion, he found that it wasn't Jiang Fuli who prescribed medicine in the hall today, but his wife Su Yurou.
Su Yurou, as usual, wore a gauze hat to cover up the face that was the subject of rumor all over the country. She saw off a patient, looked up and saw Gu Mang enter the room. She said lightly, "Do you come here for consultation?"
"Here to take medicine. Is Pharmacist Jiang here?"
"My husband went out a few days ago. If you are not suffering from a difficult disease, I can also make a diagnosis."
"Why is he going to travel again..." Gu Mang couldn't help but look down and think.
The whereabouts of Jiang Fuli were really treacherous, and most of the 365 days of a year he spent outside. It was said that gentle village buried hero's ambition. It was better for him to marry a gorgeous beauty, but he let her live alone every day. However, on second thought, he didn't seem to be any better than Jiang Fuli. A great beauty like Mo Xi was in front of him, and he also delayed for more than ten years.
Su Yurou asked, "Is it necessary for him to write your medicine paper?"
"Not at all." Gu sighed at a loss and said, "Excuse me, Madam. I just want to ask if there is any way to stop this kind of tobacco."
"... Are you a man of Wangshu mansion?"
"That's right."
"Go back, sir."
Gu Mang opened his eyes. "Why?"
Su Yurou said, "You should know that Wang Shujun doesn't mean to quit smoking. As for addiction cessation, medicine is always auxiliary and the heart is Lord. He wants to smoke with all his heart. It is useless to give him any good medicine. Why should he smash the signboard of my pharmacist's office?"
"..." Gu Mang opened his mouth and wanted to argue. But on second thought, Madam. Su said something reasonable. Murong Lian wanted to smoke, so who could stop him.
Gu Mang was worried but couldn't help but sigh heavily. He thanked Su Yurou and left the pharmacist's house.
In fact, it had to be said that for Murong Lian, Gu Mang's feelings were very complicated.
On the one hand, he really did not agree with many of Murong Lian's practices. On the other hand, he understood Murong Lian's heart and felt sorry for him involuntarily.
Murong Lian's father left early, and his mother, Madam Zhao, probably hoped that he would be the same character as Wangshu Jun. So she completely killed Murong Lian's talent and insisted on setting a path for him. And the end of that road was to make him into a model like his father.
Gu Mang remembered clearly that Murong Lian loved magic when he was a child. He often sat in the yard and created spiritual butterflies and flowers——
But Madam Zhao won't allow it.
"What can magic do? Only to be the army's backup! It's all useless! Your father was good at instrumental magic. You are his child. Music cultivation is what you should do. Don't make a detour!"
"Look at Mo Xi! He has the same ability as Fuling Jun. Other people are more talented than you and work harder than you. Don't you know how to introspect?"
"Murong Lian! Come back and try to buy more magic scrolls! Believe it or not, I'll tear them up for you!"
After her daily scolding and shouting, Wangshu's mansion would never see the magical butterflies and flowers. These things that Murong Lian thought were very beautiful were not worth mentioning in front of his mother. They were all things that couldn't be put on the table.
When Madam Zhao was still alive, one of the most frequently heard sentences in the mansion was, "Murong Lian, study hard as your father did. Don't lose face for Wangshu mansion."
He seemed to live in the mold of his father, and other people would not care that he was totally another life. They would only put him in according to the mold. Once he did something beyond the framework, they would cut his flesh and blood cruelly, completely ignoring the pain of his dream being castrated.
As long as something was not done in place, there was a stern and strict lesson.
"What's this nonsense? Don't you know how to cultivate well?"
"If you eat that bitter food, you'll be tired. Murong Lian, you can't be a little promising!?"
"This is best for you. If you can't make it, see what you can afford!"
Gu Mang remembered that at the beginning, Murong Lian was still struggling very hard. He quarreled with his mother and ran out of the house crying——
"But I just like magic! I don't like the guqin! Why do you keep pushing me like this? I don't want to be Murong Xuan's son! Whoever wants to be should do it!"
In exchange for this sentence, Madam Zhao's thunder and fury was the only time Murong Lian had been beaten to the skin and flesh. Such a small child who had been beaten to a bloody mass, lay on the bed and choked. He could not
breathe in or out… That look was really pathetic.
Gu Mang watched him grow up the whole time. Like a sick plum, he was deprived of his love, his nature eliminated, his fate distorted, and he was forced to grow up as a copy of his father.
In this process, Murong Lian went from resistance to forbearance, and from forbearance to numbness.
At last, the child who once sat in the courtyard sunshine and was proud of the colorful butterflies in the courtyard would never be seen again. Only the guqin in the music room rattled like water, and the jade flute flew all over the imperial city. In the cold and hot summer, in the night rain of plantain season, ten years lingered like a day.
Others said that the sound of the guqin was wonderful. Only Gu Mang knew that it was not. Murong Lian held funerals for his butterflies and flowers in the sound of gold, jade, silk and bamboo instruments.
Murong Lian was still distorted after all.
Gu Mang lost his memory before, so he didn't feel anything wrong with the Murong Lian who was drunk and sleepy, and sipped a pipe all day long. But when his childhood memories were recalled by the Time Mirror, he thought things were not so simple.
Others may not know Murong Lian. They thought he was a rotten man, but Gu
Mang had been waiting on him since he was a child. Gu Mang knew that Murong Lian's rotten methods were not like they were now.
Murong Lian's encounters from childhood made his temperament very bad. He would make bad use of it and beat his competitors with negative moves. For example, when he was in the school, he used the slave brothers and sisters to cheat Mo Xi's sympathy, causing him to be flogged. Another example was to use Gu Mang to blackmail Mo Xi, so that Mo Xi was forced to lose to him in the competition meeting.
Although his actions were very abusive, they all showed the same thing——
Murong Lian liked to win.
How could Murong Lian not like to win? He was scolded as a child. He was used to being beaten like a running dog. When he heard a stick, he would fight with his teeth and tremble. It was his instinct to be competitive. Even though his mother had passed away for so many years, he could not give up.
But what was floating like a dream? It was the spice that the weak sipped to deceive themselves. It was clear once one took this kind of psychedelic smoke, they would be almost useless.
Why did Murong Lian suddenly smoke something that would rot him to the bone during his five years of treason?
And that ring.
Although the ring's purpose was unknown, it should not be harmful. Gu Mang could feel a very strange aura on that ring. He could almost be sure that Murong Lian put this ring on him to help him.
Murong Lian… Murong Lian…
What did this person know, what was he concealing, and what is he suffering from?
Gu Mang frowned deeply. He couldn't think of a clue. He only felt that he had a headache and wanted to crack. At last, he had to stop.
It was noon when he got home. At lunchtime, Gu Mang went into the hall, but he didn't see the dishes on the table or people in the room.
Feeling puzzled, he saw a servant come in from the yard with a fruit plate, and Gu Mang went to ask her, "Jiejie, where is Xihe Jun?"
The servants of Xihe mansion were not very angry to treat Mang, but many of them met with the wind to make the rudder work. How could they not smell the profound meaning of his treatment of Gu Mang these days?
The servant girl immediately said with a smart smile, "Aiyo, Mister Gu doesn't need to call me Jiejie. Just call me Xiao Su."
Before Gu Mang could get used to the honorific title "Mister Gu," she placed the fruit plate on the table, wiped her hands, smiled and directed, "The Lord was under the orange blossom tree in the back garden. First, you can go there to find him. If you can't find him, go to the small kitchen."
Gu Mang was surprised. "Small kitchen?"
"Yes."
"What is he doing there???"
— -------------------------
The author has something to say: I'm back!!!
Murong family is not easy
Murong Lian: I miss the day when I was scolded by the comment area to leave the group. Alas, since I wore pinru's clothes, my hatred value has gone, and my heart hurts.
JunShang: I miss the day when I hated muronglian no matter how I died in the comment area. Alas, since I learned the speech skills, the value of hatred has come to me. My heart hurts.
Murong Mengze: I miss the days when I didn't show up. Alas, since I showed up, I have been scolded as soon as I spoke. My heart hurts.
Murong Chuyi: miss the comment area and think I am the day of attack.
Gu Mangmang:??? Fourth brother, you wake up, never lived that kind of life!!!