Many temples in Great Jin were built on the mountains. To offer incense in the temple, one has to walk up many stone steps.
The big families in the capital like this kind of thing, and think it makes them appear pious.
However, Jingning Temple is different. It was built at the foot of the mountain and surrounded by flat land. In addition, the temple is small, so there are very few people who would come to the temple to offer incense. Most of those who came are nearby villagers.
But such terrain also makes building houses easier.
Lu Yanzhou spent a lot of money and also invited nearby villagers to help, so within a few days, two rows of one-story houses were built around Jingning Temple with a total of twenty houses, and in each house was a kang.
Lu Yanzhou was the first to move in, then he invited the three Juren from the temple to live with him.
After packing up, Lu Yanzhou asked Chang Feng to stay in the temple watch, and then left with Lu Tao.
The original owner’s father is old man Lu’s son. The Lu family was only in their twenties when the incident happened, but the original owner’s uncles were all in their forties and fifties, so their children were all grown up.
The original owner had a total of seven cousins. After the Lu family incident, one of the men who married his cousin was also implicated. With the whole family beheaded, two of his cousin’s husbands, who are generals in the Lu’s army, were demoted because they beg for mercy for the Lu family. They were taken away from the capital to the border.
These three people were actually implicated by the Lu family, as for the other four…
There was a cousin who had been married for only a year and had just conceived a child, as a result, she died of illness suddenly. The other was only ten years old when the accident happened to the Lu family, but she was already engaged, so she was sent to her husband’s house to avoid the death penalty. However, she ‘lost’ not long after, and her whereabouts were unknown.
The so-called ‘death of illness’ and ‘lost’ are of course fake because they were probably murdered. In contrast, the other two who became nun after being divorced, although they are living poorly, life is not bad—the two live in the same nunnery, and now that their children have grown up, they would also visit them from time to time, so there is hope in life.
After the original owner grew up, he had contacted the two cousins at the border. At this time, he had even persuaded his two cousin husbands to join King Rui, but he hadn’t talked about it with King Rui yet.
When the original owner came to the capital, he went to see the two cousins who lived in the nunnery and gave them some money.
Excluding the dead one now, only the original owner’s lost cousin has not been found yet. On the original historical trajectory, King Rui would find her in a few months and give her a house and money.
King Rui also said in front of the original owner how pitiful the Lu family was, he respected Sir Lu very much, and he would definitely redress the Lu family in the future.
The original owner was greatly moved after hearing this, and worked even harder to help King Rui plan.
Lu Yanzhou built a house in Jingning Temple because he wanted to bring his youngest cousin to live here.
The original owner’s cousin is called Lu Rong, who was only ten years old when the accident happened seventeen years ago. At that time, the original owner’s uncles thought of many ways to save the family. The children who were sent away included the original owner’s nephew and the original owner, but in the end, his nephew did not survive.
As for Lu Rong, at that time her parents prepared generous gifts and hurriedly sent her to her husband’s house where she had been engaged since childhood.
At that time, the Lu family did not expect Lu Rong’s fiancé to marry Lu Rong, but only asked the other family to save Lu Rong’s life.
Even if Lu Rong lives in a nunnery all her life, lighting an oil lamp before the Buddha statue is also acceptable.
But Lu Rong’s fiancé’s family was really cruel. They took the money from Lu’s family and sold Lu Rong to a brothel.
Lu Rong was trapped in a brothel, and she never revealed her identity because she didn’t want to disgrace the Lu family. Ten years later, a man who had an old relationship with the Lu family accidentally saw Lu Rong, recognized her, and saved her.
But this person didn’t dare to help Lu Rong too much, and only gave Lu Rong a sum of money enough to redeem her life.
Lu Rong redeemed herself, and then rented a house near flower street and willow alley, she made a living by making clothes and styling hair for courtesans.
King Rui accidentally got in touch with the person who helped Lu Rong redeem herself, and found Lu Rong after several searches. In the present, he has not discovered Lu Rong’s existence. Lu Yanzhou intends to take Lu Rong away in advance and hide her in Jingning Temple.
Sometimes the most dangerous place is the safest place.
Lu Yanzhou had already asked Lu Tao to inquire about Lu Rong’s whereabouts a few days ago, and he had already found Lu Rong, whose alias was ‘Fu Rong’, whereabouts, so he went straight to the door.
When Lu Rong opened the door, the two looked at each other. Although they didn’t speak, they both felt something.
Lu Yanzhou said: “Sister, let’s go in and talk.”
Lu Rong stepped aside and let Lu Yanzhou and Lu Tao go in.
Lu Yanzhou inherited the Lu family’s height, but he doesn’t get the Lu appearance, he looks more like his mother. On the other hand, Lu Rong seems to get Lu everything.
This is also a good thing…The Lu family is tall and plain-looking, which made Lu Rong could only do most of the physical work in the brothel before, so she didn’t suffer too much.
“Seventh Sister, I finally found you.” Lu Yanzhou felt a little emotional.
Lu Rong stared at Lu Yanzhou for a moment, her voice trembling: “Little nine, you look a lot like aunt…” Lu Yanzhou is the ninth among his cousins.
Lu Rong burst into tears, but she didn’t cry out. She quickly wiped away her tears and asked, “How have you been living these years? Others…are they okay?”
Lu Yanzhou told everything he knew.
He was the only male of the Lu family who survived. Five of the seven female cousins survived, two were in the border, two were in the nunnery, and the rest was the one in front of him.
In addition, Lu Yanzhou also said that he had already been admitted to Juren and planned to take the imperial examination next year.
Lu Rong said: “That’s good. When you win the palace examination, you can marry a wife and revive the Lu family!”
Lu Yanzhou was stunned when he heard Lu Rong’s words. In the original owner’s memory, after Lu Rong met the original owner, she forced the original owner to avenge the Lu family and kept forcing the original owner to kill King Rui. She also helped the original owner deal with the crown prince, she was never soft hearted…
Lu Rong was much more active than the original master in avenging their family.
It’s a pity that the original owner followed the wrong person. Afterwards, although King Rui overturned the case for the Lu family and gained favor from the courtiers, he also killed the original owner.
At that time, Lu Rong rushed out and tried to assassinate King Rui, but was unsuccessful, and was hacked by the people around King Rui.
This time, Lu Rong didn’t even mention a word of revenge?
Lu Yanzhou said: “Seventh sister, I will take the palace examination, and revenge will also be avenged.”
Lu Rong was startled.
Lu Yanzhou laughed: “Seventh sister, don’t say you don’t want revenge.”
Lu Rong trembled: “Of course I want revenge, I want to tear them into pieces! It’s just that you are still young and the Lu family needs you to pass it on…”
Lu Yanzhou knew why Lu Rong didn’t come up this time to make him take revenge.
The original owner met Lu Rong through King Rui, and when Lu Rong saw that the original owner was doing things for the enemy’s son, she was naturally furious.
He was different, he came to the door alone, Lu Rong didn’t know his involvement with King Rui, so she naturally hoped that he would live well.
Lu Yanzhou said: “Seventh Sister, right now I am King Rui’s advisor, and I have already met the crown prince.”
Lu Rong frowned.
Lu Yanzhou said again: “Our family’s enmity will definitely be avenged.”
The Lu family is really wronged.
Back then, the original owner’s grandfather and the late emperor rebelled almost at the same time. They both occupied a large area of land, but the original owner’s grandfather was more powerful.
If the original owner’s grandfather fought a battle with the late emperor, there’s a great probability of the original owner’s grandfather winning.
The original owner’s grandfather couldn’t bear the loss of lives and didn’t want too many people to die, so he took the initiative to seek refuge with the late emperor. At that time, the late emperor also promised the Lu family wealth and honor, and even gave the Lu family a gold medal that pardoned them from death.
However, if they want to wipe out the Lu family in the present, that is useless.
The blood of dozens of members of the Lu family, as well as many relatives and friends, stained the food market mouth red seventeen years ago.
Lu Yanzhou came here through transmigration, though his hatred for the emperor was not that strong, he also felt that the Lu family should not be wronged.
Of course, he said this mainly because he knew that Lu Rong hated the current emperor very much and acted a little too aggressively.
He wanted Lu Rong to listen to him first, then think it through slowly.
In recent years, Lu Rong has actually done some things for revenge. She contacted some people who had some grievances with the royal family in the brothel, and set up an information network. The original owner was able to plot against the crown prince because she was the one who found the two young men that were killed in front of the crown prince.
She even asked her husband to pretend to be a daoist priest and sneak into the palace to assassinate the emperor.
It’s a pity that Lu Rong’s husband didn’t succeed, but was torn into pieces by five horses instead.
Lu Rong’s husband will do it soon. If Lu Yanzhou doesn’t stop him, his life will be wasted.
As for the emperor…According to the original trajectory, the emperor was already in poor health by taking pills indiscriminately. The emperor died soon after his pill was tampered with.
Of course, that will be in three years.
Because the original owner was dedicated to working for King Rui, Lu Rong didn’t tell the original owner many things. For example, about Lu Rong’s husband. Lu Rong didn’t tell the original owner about him until the original owner poisoned the emperor.
Before that, the original owner didn’t know that Lu Rong was married. He only knew that Lu Rong had a child with an unknown father.
The original owner was in a mess from being misguided by the code of etiquette. Although he felt sorry for Lu Rong, he also looked down on Lu Rong because of Lu Rong’s past, and he also disliked Lu Rong’s children…
Lu Rong lost her husband and her little cousin was also working for the son of the enemy. She was a little crazy in the end.
While Lu Yanzhou and Lu Rong were talking, there was the sound of crying in the room.
Lu Rong was taken aback, but Lu Yanzhou laughed: “Is that seventh sister’s child?”
Lu Rong said: “Yes, that is my son, named Lu Xing.”
“Show me.” Lu Yanzhou said.
Lu Yanzhou came suddenly, so Lu Rong actually didn’t completely let go of her guard against Lu Yanzhou. However, Lu Yanzhou and Lu Tao are two big men, she is just a weak woman, it’s difficult to resist, so she didn’t resist at all and brought Lu Yanzhou into the house.
The room was clean and there was a crying child on the kang who seemed like he was only born a few months ago.
Lu Rong went over to change the baby’s stain sheet, then held him in her arms to coax him.
Lu Yanzhou looked at the child carefully, and the more he looked, the more satisfied he became.
After King Rui ascended the throne, he devoted himself to eradicating the grass and roots, so the child also naturally failed to survive too.
The child who was only four years old at that time was poisoned to death together with the original owner.
As the saying goes, ‘Three years old is old1Judging from a 3 year old’s behavior, one will know what kind of person they will be when they grow up’. Judging from the memory of the original owner, this child is very smart and worth cultivating. Moreover, Lu Rong gave birth to this child in order to continue Lu’s bloodline. When the child was born, Lu Rong didn’t know that the original owner was still alive.
This is the future head of the Lu family, how could Lu Yanzhou not like him?
Seeing that Lu Yanzhou liked her child, Lu Rong felt relieved and chatted with Lu Yanzhou.
Lu Yanzhou had the original owner’s memory and could tell a lot of things, which quickly made Lu Rong let down her guard.
Lu Yanzhou continued: “Seventh sister, King Rui has been looking for you recently. For safety’s sake, pack up and leave with me. You can also help me.”
According to the original owner’s memory, King Rui knew that the original owner was a descendant of the Lu family after the original owner showed concern for Lu Rong. Therefore, Lu Yanzhou was not afraid that King Rui would go to his other cousins to threaten him, but was only worried that Lu Rong would be exploited by King Rui.
“Why is he looking for me?” Lu Rong frowned.
Lu Yanzhou sneered: “Win the military generals over.”
Many military generals today are from the Lu family.
It’s true that most people did not dare to speak for the Lu family because they were afraid of causing trouble, but if King Rui showed kindness to the Lu family, they would definitely have a good impression of King Rui.
Lu Yanzhou told Lu Rong one by one what happened in the court today.
Lu Rong has been inquiring about all kinds of news these years, but she is limited by her status, so she can’t inquire much. Now that Lu Yanzhou is telling her, she listens very carefully.
Finally, Lu Rong said: “Little nine, actually…I have someone I know who has sneaked into the palace.”
Lu Rong told about her husband, but she didn’t say that he was her husband, she only said that he was a man who had received the Lu family’s grace, he was willing to avenge the Lu family. Now he has sneaked into the palace disguised as a daoist priest to assassinate the emperor.
Lu Yanzhou said: “Seventh sister, the assassination is too dangerous and not easy to succeed. Since this powerful man has already entered the palace, why bother to assassinate? He can also poison!”
“Poisoning?” Lu Rong frowned: “That dog emperor is very concerned about eating and checks everything in the mouth. It’s very difficult to poison him.”
Lu Yanzhou said: “As far as I know, some of the daoist priests in the palace today aren’t really real! You can either grab their handle, or bribe them, then make them add a small amount of toxins to the refined medicine. When the time comes, the dog emperor would already eat too much, he will naturally die, and that strong man will not be implicated.”
Lu Yanzhou wanted to save his brother-in-law.
As for the emperor…Even if it was Xie Chengze’s father, he would not be soft-hearted.
The current emperor is paranoid and in order to live forever, he has gone insane. In his previous life, the original owner poisoned him and interrogated those daoist priests. From the mouths of those daoists priests, he learned that the current emperor has harmed many virgins, it wasn’t known how many have died in his hands.
He even asked the crown prince and King Rui to give their blood to help him make the immortal elixir.
Don’t just look at just the empress and imperial consort fighting all the time, these two are actually not doing well in the harem. With the current emperor wanting to become immortal, he naturally hates these worldly burdens.
The daoist priest who was favored by the current emperor could even talk back to the empress. There was a dispute between the empress and a daoist priest before, and the current emperor asked her to kneel down and apologize.
The original owner was able to poison the current emperor to death with the help of King Rui, who, as his son, also hated the current emperor very much.
Of course, he didn’t plan to let Xie Chengze know about his attack on the emperor, because he was Xie Chengze’s father after all.
Lu Yanzhou told Lu Rong that he wanted revenge, and he really planned to do it, but Xie Chengze was definitely not among his targets.
He has already planned to pursue Xie Chengze!
He also planned to let Xie Chengze sit on the throne in the future.
It’s the people who suffer from the change of dynasty, and many people will die, which is not in his plan.
Lu Yanzhou talked a lot with Lu Rong, then Lu Rong immediately decided to terminate the original assassination plan. As for how she would contact her husband…Lu Yanzhou didn’t care about this.
After meeting Lu Rong, he went back to Jingning Temple. As for Lu Rong, she will come over tomorrow.
At the same time, the people under Xie Chengze informed Xie Chengze of Lu Yanzhou’s situation.
The time was short but Xie Chengze only wanted to know about Lu Yanzhou’s recent situation, so his subordinates naturally did not investigate carefully. Xie Chengze only knew that Lu Yanzhou was from Jiangnan and his family was rich.
These days, Lu Yanzhou has been living in Jingning Temple, and he has donated a lot of food for the abbot of Jingning Temple to help the poor people.
Seeing this, Xie Chengze recalled his first encounter with Lu Yanzhou.
At that time, Lu Juren was helping to take care of some children.
After thinking about it, Xie Chengze asked people to prepare — tomorrow he will go to Jingning Temple.
The crown prince often went to Jingning Temple to relax, so his subordinates immediately got ready.
The next day, Xie Chengze changed into ordinary clothes and went to Jingning Temple with two guards. Of course, there were still people who pretended to be ordinary travelers and secretly protected him.
Xie Chengze chose Jingning Temple for relaxation is actually related to the fact that Jingning Temple is located at the foot of the mountain and there is no need to climb the mountain.
He had a serious heart condition and could not climb the mountain.
There are only eight monks in Jingning Temple. It’s usually not lively, but today there are many people. When Xie Chengze approached, he saw a few old women cooking porridge, and there were many dirty children waiting to drink porridge.
Xie Chengze’s eyes finally fell on one of the young men.
A young man in his early twenties was sitting on a bamboo chair with a worn out desk in front of him, taking the children’s pulse.
These children are dirty but he doesn’t dislike them at all, he also gently asks these children questions.
Xie Chengze’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He covered his chest, his face changed – is he having a heart attack?
While thinking about it, Xie Chengze saw the person, who was taking the other’s pulse come to him, and asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with you? Are you uncomfortable?”
“I’m fine.” Xie Chengze put his hands down and put it behind his back.
Few people know about his heart disease.
His mother’s family and the imperial consort family already had enmity. Before his mother and the imperial consort entered the palace, one was known as the most talented woman in the capital, and the other was known as the most beautiful woman in the capital…
If the imperial consort knew that he was suffering from heart disease, she would definitely try her best to attack him!
Lu Yanzhou took a look at Xie Chengze and said with a smile: “Brother Cheng, your complexion is not very good, are you cold? Let’s go inside to warm up.”
When Xie Chengze went out, he used the pseudonym ‘Cheng Yuan’. He could use rouge to cover up his pale lips, but his face was still too pale, and it was really cold outside now…Xie Chengze nodded, and followed Lu Yanzhou into the house.
The room is not big, and half of the place is occupied by the kang, which makes it even smaller. But the place is quite good. At this time, a fire was burned under the kang, which made the whole house warm.
“This is my house. If you don’t mind, you can take a rest here and drink some water…I still have something to do, I’ll come back when I’m done.” Lu Yanzhou said.
“Okay.” Xie Chengze agreed, took off his shoes and got on the kang.
Lu Yanzhou was a little too intimate when talking to him, but he didn’t feel disgusted for some reason, he just felt his heart beat faster again.
There was a small table on the kang, so Lu Yanzhou took out two snacks, put them on the plate and put them on the table. He also found a pot of hot water to put on the table, so Xie Chengze can use as he wants, and then he left.
The door was closed, and the papered windows didn’t let much light in. The room was much darker, but it was also extraordinarily warm.
Xie Chengze put his hands on the warm kang. After a while, he slowly lay down.
He felt warm all over like this.
When the warmth enveloped his whole body, Xie Chengze let out a long breath.
This kang is for people to sleep, usually in such a place, he would not sit down no matter what.
But he not only got on the kang, but also lay down.
Covering his eyes with his hands, Xie Chengze sighed.
He didn’t understand why he couldn’t forget Lu Yanzhou before, but after seeing him again this time, he finally understood.
He was tempted.
He grew up so old, it was the first time he fell in love with someone, and the person he was attracted to was actually a man.
“Your highness…” The guard who followed Xie Chengze was a little worried.
Both of these two are Xie Chengze’s confidantes, and they know Xie Chengze’s physical condition…Xie Chengze answer: “I’m fine, just a little cold.”
The two guards stopped talking and just stood on one side.
Xie Chengze lay down for a while, and then sat up again, inevitably recalling the first time he met Lu Yanzhou.
That time, he had a good impression of Lu Yanzhou, and Lu Yanzhou kept looking for topics when talking to him, obviously he didn’t dislike him.
As for this time…Lu Yanzhou was very warm to him, and even let him into his bed…
Resting his hands on the table on the kang and his chin, Xie Chengze couldn’t help smiling.
But he soon restrained his smile.
He likes Lu Yanzhou, but Lu Yanzhou doesn’t necessarily like men.
Even if Lu Yanzhou likes men…he suffers from heart disease, he doesn’t know how long he can live, so he has no future with Lu Yanzhou anyway.
The only thing he can do, perhaps, is to look at Lu Yanzhou a few more times.
Lu Yanzhou was still outside to help people check their pulse and treat them.
This is what he agreed to before, so it’s not good to just ignore it just because Xie Chengze came.
Be patient, Lu Yanzhou checks them all one by one.
He studied medicine before and had contact with traditional chinese medicine, but he didn’t know much about it. However, he didn’t need very good medical skills to treat these children.
It’s impossible for children with serious illnesses to survive in this era. The problems of these children are mainly malnutrition and parasitic infections.
In addition to giving them food and drink, these children have to take a bath and change into clean clothes, and it’s best to take some deworming medicine.
After bandaging the wound on those wounded children, Lu Yanzhou hurried back to the house, and then he saw Xie Chengze sitting on the kang drinking water.
Neither the original owner nor Lu Yanzhou cared much about the quality of life. The kettles and teacups in Lu Yanzhou’s house were made of ordinary rough porcelain.
However, when Xie Chengze held the rough porcelain cup in his hand, somehow it looked quite elegant.
Lu Yanzhou’s eyes fell on Xie Chengze’s hand.
Xie Chengze’s hands were pale, so the blue and purple blood veins were clearly visible, and his nails were cyanotic…This is one of the external manifestations of a bad heart.
Looking up again, Lu Yanzhou saw Xie Chengze’s pale face. His mood became even more depressed.
“Jizhi, are you done?” Xie Chengze asked with a smile.
“I’m done with my work,” Lu Yanzhou smiled, followed onto the kang, and sat opposite Xie Chengze, “Brother Cheng, after that meeting, I’ve been wanting to see you again and I finally saw you after waiting for a long time.”
Xie Chengze’s heart skipped a beat again. He lowered his head to drink water, then said after drinking, “I miss you very much too, but I’m busy at home and don’t have time.”
“Brother Cheng is busy? You should pay attention to rest, you are too thin.” Lu Yanzhou said. After he finished speaking, he realized that what he said was a bit out of bounds.
He and Xie Chengze met for the second time, and this is also ancient times…but he couldn’t restrain himself.
Fortunately, Xie Chengze didn’t care, instead he smiled: “I will remember to.”
After finishing speaking, Xie Chengze seemed to realize that something was wrong, and quickly changed the subject: “Jizhi, are you going to take the exam next year? I have a few books annotated by Sir Wang Linyuan, I will send them to you tomorrow.”
Wang Linyuan is the greatest scholar in the present, and the official who presides over the examination this time is also his student.
The books he has annotated are very precious to this year’s candidates, and most people can’t even get them.
Xie Chengze gave Lu Yanzhou a big gift as soon as they met.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I felt familiar with you at first sight.” Xie Chengze said.
Both he and Lu Yanzhou are men, and he is still terminally ill, so he can’t do many things.
It was impossible for them to be together, so he could only give Lu Yanzhou a little help, so that Lu Yanzhou could go more smoothly in the future.
Xie Chengze had already collected his mood. No matter whether it was his expression or his eyes, he didn’t show anything abnormal. When he looked at Lu Yanzhou, he only showed admiration.
Lu Yanzhou felt a little lost and was about to say something when someone knocked on the door, and the voice of a young monk in Jingning Temple immediately rang out: “Young master Lu, there is a woman with a child here, saying she was robbed by bandit and would like to stay for a few days.”
The houses here were all built by Lu Yanzhou. If someone came to ask for help, the abbot asked the little monk to come and inform Lu Yanzhou first.
When Lu Yanzhou heard the words and opened the door, he saw Lu Rong holding the child standing pitifully not far away.