Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 12: City Lights and an Atari

"Yes!" The maid in green answered, got up and ran out.

Qin Hui relaxed his expression, held his granddaughter's hand, and comforted her softly:

"Don't worry, boy. The Chiyu won't get too far. Grandfather has already sent people to look for it. It will be back soon."

Qin Jiayue felt much more at ease when she heard that so many people were going to help her find the cat.

Qin Hui tried to comfort her with kind words for a long time before asking a few maids to lead Qin Jiayue away.

Qin Hui slipped on his shoes and slowly walked to the door of the study.

Before he knew it, it was already dusk, and the dusk was as dim and gloomy as his aging life.

In the yard, servants were climbing up and down to light the lamps in various places, and the lights in the Qin Mansion were lit up one by one.

Qin Hui looked at the lights scattered in the distance and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

When people get old, they like to reminisce about the past, and even Qin Hui is no exception.

When he saw the light, he involuntarily thought of himself studying hard under the lamp when he was a teenager.

Qin Hui's background was ordinary. Compared with his wife Wang, who came from a prime minister's family, his background was too ordinary.

Counting back to the past, his father was once the magistrate of Gu County, Jingjiang Prefecture, and he retired before he came of age, so he was not able to bring any help to his official career.

After he became an adult, before he achieved fame and fortune, he could only work as a "village teacher".

The treatment of village teachers is even worse than that of private school teachers.

Private school teachers are teachers that can only be hired by wealthy families. Even if they are not one-on-one teachers, they only teach children of the same age in the same family.

However, the "village teacher" teaches the children of an entire village, and his treatment and teaching conditions are much inferior to those of private school teachers.

At that time, he once wrote a poem, in which he said: "If I had 300 acres of paddy fields, I would not be the king of monkeys."

Haha, his ambition at that time was just to own a few hundred acres of good land, no longer be a "child teacher", and no longer live on tuition.

Who could have thought that life could be so unpredictable?

Today, his wealth is several times the annual income of the national treasury, and his power is overwhelming...

Feeling this way, the smile on Qin Hui's face gradually faded and became gloomy.

He knew that his life, like the twilight, was quietly falling into darkness. Even the splendor in the courtyard could no longer illuminate his life.

The light, the light!
A bowl of lantern for the rich, a grain of millet for the granary;

A bowl of lantern in a poor family, a father and son meet and cry.

If he was not so rich, could he have lit so many lights in his yard at night?
If he was not the prime minister, could he mobilize so many people to find a cat for his granddaughter?
He is old, and what he needs to do now is no longer how to consolidate and expand his power and status, but how to ensure that his power and status can be passed on smoothly.

In this way, the Qin family's wealth and prosperity can continue.

No one can stop this.

No matter whether it was that Yang Yuan... or the Imperial City Division behind Yang Yuan!

No one can!

Even if he is an official!

The light reflected Qin Hui's gaze, which was as cold as a knife.

……

The lights came on one by one, both indoors and outdoors.

Under the light, in the boudoir of Wu Gulun Yingge in Banjing Hall, a bundle was spread out on the table. Ah Man was sitting in front of the table with a treasure box on his knees, selecting gold, pearls and jade from the bundle.

Yingge didn't have much Song money. To be precise, she didn't have much money.

She came here with the Jin Dynasty delegation, so where would she be needed for money?

Now she had to pay Yang Yuan to help her solve the big problem of the engagement, so she had no choice but to use the jewelry.

Fortunately, many of these jewels were not brought by her from the Jin Kingdom, but were rewards from the Song Dynasty imperial court.

Ah Man is now responsible for picking out the jewelry that her daughter likes and putting it aside, and putting the ones she doesn't like into a bag to be given to Yang Yuan tomorrow.

There were sets of clothes on the couch. Yingge, who had just finished bathing and had her wet long hair loose, was trying on clothes one after another in front of a dressing mirror that was more than a meter tall.

She will go into the city to meet Yang Yuan tomorrow, and she can take the opportunity to take a look at the scenery of Lin'an.

Because of her quarrel with Wanyan Quxing, she had not been anywhere before, so it was a loss for her to come to the Song Dynasty this time.

Now that I have thrown this troublesome problem to Yang Yuan and I am in the mood to go shopping, I naturally have to choose the dress carefully.

Her long skirt had been taken off, her embroidered jacket had been untied, and she had only one personal maid by her side, so Wugu Lun Yingge exposed her body without any scruples.

At this moment, she didn't even have her undergarments on properly. The pair of "arm-wrapped gold rings" on her arms were reflected by the light. Her arms were like beautiful jades, and the gold rings were dazzling, revealing a strange and delicate beauty...

Ah Man selected for a while, and seeing that there was already a pile of jewels in the package, he looked up and asked, "Girl, are these enough?"

Because she had been with the girl since she was young, she only had to ask the steward in the mansion on behalf of the young lady if there was anything she needed to buy. So Ah Man had no concept of money and could only estimate the cost herself.

Yingge glanced back and said nonchalantly, "That's about it, pick out the ones I don't like.

However, there is no need to give it all to him at once. Give him one third first. If he can really get this done for me, it won’t be too late to give him the rest later.

He knows that there will be a greater reward if he succeeds, so he will work harder. "

Ah Man praised: "My daughter is amazing. She has learned the art of business without any teacher."

"Stop flattering!"

Yingge giggled and lifted her hair with a bigger movement, causing the freshly braised tofu-like part to tremble.

After receiving Yingge's instructions, Ah Man stopped choosing jewelry and walked over, sat beside the couch, and watched her choose clothes.

"Girl, we are going to the city tomorrow. Will Prince Wanyan come along and spoil the fun again?"

"How dare he? I just reported him to Prince Xin, and he still dares to come and cause trouble? Tsk!"

Yingge said this with disdain, and as her eyes turned, she suddenly saw Ah Man casually touch and take out a piece of brocade handkerchief from under the pillow, and she couldn't help but turn pale.

"You stop!"

Yingge screamed, leaped over, and threw Ah Man onto the couch, then hurriedly snatched the handkerchief from her hand.

"Ai?"

Ah Man had sharp eyes and had already seen the bloody scribbles on the handkerchief. She looked at Ying Ge with her big, ignorant eyes.

Yingge secretly regretted her mistake. She was so careless. How could she forget to dispose of this thing?
Yingge hurried to the lamp, lit the brocade handkerchief, threw it into the foot bath basin, and watched the flames devour it bit by bit.

Ah Man walked up to her blankly and asked curiously, "Girl, what is this?"

"This is……"

Yingge panicked and made up a story, "This is... a talisman that I asked for!"

Ah Man became even more curious: "Talisman? What are they used for?"

Yingge's face was flushed as she said viciously, "I curse a certain little thief to turn into an Ata (a dog in Jurchen).
(End of this chapter)