noffsinger What's wrong with Chapter 1300?
What's wrong with Chapter 1300?
Yin Shi.
The Shen residence was quiet.
After tossing and turning in bed for half an hour without being able to fall asleep, Shen Zheng grabbed her clothes in the dark, casually tied her hair up, and carried a glass lamp out of the courtyard.
There was a small pond in the mansion, between the main courtyard and the backyard. She walked lightly, following the cool fragrance of chrysanthemums, until she reached the pond.
The pond in autumn is not quiet.
The night insects rustled, and occasionally a frog croaked. The autumn wind swept by, and the surface of the pond rippled in layers, like scales and ribbons.
She gently placed the glass lamp by the pond; the firelight reflected on the surface of the pond, and the surface of the pond reflected her.
The water rippled slightly. She knelt beside the lamp and reached into her bosom, pulling out two white candles.
The candle tip tilted, catching the flame.
One, two.
She placed two candles by the pond.
The surroundings became clearer, and her reflection in the pool became clearer as well.
She gazed at the surface of the pool, and "she" gazed back at her.
The two looked at each other in silence. After a long while, another night breeze blew by, breaking the ripples on the water, and "she" on the surface of the pool became less clear and blurred.
"What are you thinking?" she whispered from the shore.
The "she" in the pool did not answer.
“I know you’ve been holding your breath all along,” she said from the shore. “You took the imperial examination not only to fulfill your father’s last wish, but also to prove to those who abandoned you that you can do it, that it was their loss to abandon you.”
The night breeze stopped, and "her" face in the pool became clear again, but she still didn't speak.
She, on the shore, said again: "Actually, you've already proven it. You were able to beat tens of thousands of people to pass the imperial examination and become a county magistrate. Whether they regret it or not, you're already very impressive."
After saying that, she smiled.
The "she" in the pool also laughed.
"You, you..." She leaned forward on the shore, extending a finger and gently tapping the surface of the pool: "It's because you didn't understand back then, and you were making things difficult for yourself, that's why..."
"Da da da da da-"
Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps behind her.
"Shen Zheng!"
Immediately following was Yu Shizhang's urgent shout: "What are you doing! Get back here immediately!"
The surface of the pool reflected Shen Zheng's startled face.
Before she could turn around, she felt a pain in both shoulders, and her entire buttocks slid back two feet with a "giggle".
The ground around the pond is paved with gravel, the kind with sharp edges and varying sizes.
"Ouch! O ...
She was in so much pain that her face contorted, and she tried to reach up to cover her buttocks, but she couldn't stand up for a while, making her look extremely comical.
Footsteps echoed again from the end of Congju Road.
With her eyes brimming with tears, Shen Zheng caught a glimpse of Xu Yunyan's anxious face.
"What are you so upset about!" Yu Shizhang pointed at her nose and cursed, "It's just the Meng family, is it worth you risking your life for them?!"
Shen Zheng was stunned, and large tears, which she couldn't hold back, fell with a "thud" onto the stones.
"You're still crying?!" Yu Shizhang kicked two candles away. "Even if the Meng family is gone, there's still the Yu family! There's still the Yongning Marquis's Mansion! That's your home too! When you pass away, Nan Shu will still take care of you in your old age and see you off in your final days!"
Shen Zheng: “?”
She was crying bitterly.
"Speak up!" Yu Shizhang ignored her and pointed at the lake: "What were you trying to do just now?"
Shen Zheng, clutching her burning buttocks, offered her "complaints": "I didn't intend to commit suicide..."
Even if ten Meng families came knocking on her door, let alone one, she wouldn't be so desperate.
Yu Shizhang was taken aback, and pointed to the two lonely candles on the cobblestone path in the distance: "What were you doing just now? I clearly saw that most of your body was almost in the pool!"
Xu Yunyan's eyes were also deep as he kept looking at her.
She stood up, clutching her buttocks, and said honestly, "...I just wanted to talk to myself and ask myself what I was thinking."
"..." Yu Shizhang and Xu Yunyan froze at the same time.
As the autumn night wind swept by, ripples spread across the pond once more.
......
Half an hour passed quickly.
Shen Zheng secretly applied medicine to herself after returning to her room, changed her clothes, and went to the poolside again.
Unlike last time, this time Yu Shizhang and Xu Yunyan were both waiting for her by the pond.
The three of them sat on the ground. Shen Zheng secretly adjusted her posture several times before her buttocks felt a little better.
“…Well.” Yu Shizhang lit the two candles that he had kicked two zhang away, wedged the bottoms of the candles into the pebbles, and coughed lightly, “You can’t do this next time. It’s late at night, by the pond, with white candles, and he’s talking to himself and touching the surface of the pond…it’s really creepy.”
That one glance really scared him.
Shen Zheng gave a smile that concealed her pain: "You old man are still as sharp as ever, your strength is still considerable."
Yu Shizhang looked down at his hands.
He didn't know where his brute force came from.
Come to think of it, my wrist seems to be hurting right now.
After secretly kneading it a couple of times, he picked up a pebble and threw it onto the surface of the pool.
"Boom-"
The pebble quickly disappeared, but the ripples spread all the way to them.
"Do you want to acknowledge the Meng family?" Yu Shizhang asked, looking at the waves that kept coming one after another.
Although he didn't want to admit it, Meng Huailin and Meng Zhu's eyebrows and eyes did indeed resemble Shen Zheng's by about 60-70%.
Shen Zheng did not answer, but turned to ask, "In your opinion, does Meng Huailin seem to be lying?"
Yu Shizhang pondered for only a moment before shaking his head: "It doesn't seem like it."
In his eyes, Meng Huailin seemed to be mentally challenged and didn't seem like someone who could scheme.
As for Meng Zhu, needless to say, her eyes were filled with nothing but jealousy and grievance, and it's unclear what she was feeling wronged about.
But precisely because of this, it seems that the Meng siblings did not come here intentionally to claim kinship.
“I don’t think so either.” Shen Zheng held a stone, rubbing it back and forth with her fingertips, her brows furrowed slightly. “But for some reason, I feel deep down that I’m not a member of the Meng family.”
These words were spoken by her as "Shen Zheng".
It was a statement of facts, devoid of emotion.
Yu Shizhang looked at her.
She paused for a moment, then hugged her knees and muttered, "Even though I look like them, I always feel like something's not quite right..."
But where exactly is it?
Was it Meng Huailin's almost clumsy sincerity?
Or was it the displeasure that Mengzhu couldn't hide in her eyes?
Or perhaps... that half of the jade pendant?
Jade?
Shen Zheng was suddenly stunned.
"I've got it!" She threw away the pebble in her hand and hurriedly asked Yu Shizhang to confirm, "Didn't Meng Huailin say that after his second sister went missing, the Meng family sent people to search everywhere, and that the half of the jade pendant was found at the border between Yanzhou and Shangjing?"
Yu Shizhang paused slightly, then nodded: "Yes. But didn't you say... you'd never seen that jade pendant before?"
“No, it’s not about the jade pendant!” Shen Zheng shook her head, speaking very quickly: “Think about it, the Meng family had already found half a piece of jade at the border at that time, so after that, would they have gone to the capital to look for Meng Er’s whereabouts?”
Yu Shizhang was suddenly stunned.
The answer is...
"Will!"
His tone became urgent: "The child's keepsake appeared at the border of the two prefectures. Any normal person would definitely cross prefectures to search for it! Besides, the Meng family is not short of money!"