Chapter 1138 Cute
After pushing open the door of the courtyard and before walking inside, the golden red in the garden was already carried into the eyes by the sunlight. It was not until entering the courtyard that Lin Nian realized that the ginkgo and maple leaves outside the red wall were just a virtual reflection of the scenery. The fiery red branches sticking out of the yellow tiles were warning passers-by not to enter them by mistake, otherwise they would fall into the golden red garden burning with blazing flames.
There was no screen behind the gate of the courtyard like a normal entrance. Pushing open the door cast with golden nails, the sight was embraced and burned by the wide, burning red courtyard without preparation, making people's breathing stagnate, and an indescribable heat surged all over the body. Exhale, exhale again, and the nose is full of the smell of fire that is stronger than that in mid-autumn!
Fire, fire, fire, fire.
Lin Nian felt a heat wave lifting his hair, and everything in front of him was twisted by the high temperature.
In the eyes of everyone who entered the compound, it seemed as if a torrential rain of burning maple leaves and ginkgo trees had fallen. The golden and red fire covered the sky and surged down, drowning the earth and flooding their mouths and noses. The majestic and gorgeous golden and red fallen leaves that made people unable to look directly at them but could not be avoided filled every corner of the yard. A prairie fire burned the whole world red, igniting every narrow point of the perspective. If a person is drowning, he will float up to find room to breathe. Naturally, everyone who entered the yard did the same thing - looking up and moving his eyes to the blue sky without any residue, so that his eyes could greedily take a breath of oxygen in the washed blue and rest for a while.
The huge courtyard has no obstructions, except for the romantic and fiery red ginkgo and maple trees that bloom out of season. The spacing and placement of each tree are carefully arranged. It seems to be everywhere, but it conforms to the wonderful theory of Feng Shui and landscape theory. It is neither crowded nor sparse, and perfectly surrounds the empty courtyard, just like the structure of a bonfire with stacked wood. The high temperature of the flames burns the surroundings of the bonfire into ashes, but leaves the indispensable "empty" in the center.
The "empty" place is naturally the center of the courtyard, where there is a white stone table. Lin Nian, who has visited some famous attractions in BJ during these days, such as the Forbidden City and the Old Summer Palace, recognized that it was a white marble table. The so-called "jade-built red railings" refers to this kind of stone, which is so white and flawless that it calms people's hearts. Standing in the burning courtyard, it becomes a sudden white in the red, and it can't help but attract people to hide in the only safe haven in the scorching heat.
As they approached, the autumn leaves under their feet broke into fine golden autumn crackles, leaping over the golden and red sea of fire, approaching the snow-white circle of An Ning Harbor.
There were two people sitting on the white marble table, an old man and a woman.
The old man was very old, old to the bone marrow. The older a person is, the emptier he becomes, so old that the weight of his bone marrow is eaten away by time, and he naturally appears light. His loose clothes and wide belts could not cover his paper-light body, as if he was a random red leaf in the courtyard, rootless and helpless, with the wind pouring into his wide sleeves and fluttering shirts, gathering up a bunch of hollows.
The woman was very beautiful, and beautiful to the bone marrow.
Lin Nian had heard the phrase "God gives food to eat" many times, mostly when others praised his talent, but now, although it was different at a different time and in a different scene, he was willing to give this phrase intact to the woman in a snow-white jacquard dress sitting on the white marble table.
Thin cloud clothes, slender waist, all Li Huoyue's previous efforts turned out to be horizontal imitations of the other party. She was just worried that her unkempt self would look embarrassing when sitting with her. The so-called shame was not for herself, but for the woman's face. It was the greatest humiliation for the mother that her daughter was not as pretty as her mother.
The woman sat at the white marble table, her hands placed on her knees in a proper manner, her head slightly tilted with a smile on her face that did not seem fake, looking at the people who came through the fiery red autumn leaves. The pure joy and beautiful emotions made people feel a tender "realness" just like her appearance.
"Wow, it's really the ancestor. Ah, Auntie Ximan is really bad too." Lin Nian heard Sima Xuxu muttering in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" Lin Nian asked in a low voice.
Sima Xuxu, who was forced to follow into the yard, lowered his head somewhat numbly and said, "Auntie Ximan is difficult to deal with. You will know when the time comes."
Lin Nian still didn't understand Sima Xuxu's meaning, but he could see that the other party's reluctance to come was real.
After entering the yard, Sima Xuxu, who was originally reluctant behind Lin Nian, silently became honest. His temper that had always given people the impression of jumping around disappeared instantly. His head was slightly raised, his back was straight, his hands were naturally hanging down, his steps were steady and slow, and he stopped with Li Huoyue and the man in Tang suit after approaching the white marble table and bowed three times.
Dignified, respectful, you don't need to guess to know the other party's identity.
"Here we are." The old man at the white marble table said with his hands slightly folded as he looked at Lin Nian and the others who were coming.
His voice was slightly turbid, but it didn't prevent him from hearing it clearly.
Lin Nian did not know some orthodox etiquettes and maintained the most basic politeness. He bowed slightly to the old man of unknown age and the woman who was sitting quietly beside him and looking at Li Huoyue with a smile on her face. "Commissioner of the Executive Department of the Secret Party, Lin Nian." In this kind of occasion, he no longer introduced himself as a student of Kassel College. The identity of the Secret Party Commissioner should be more important and more suitable for the current situation.
The old man looked at Lin Nian. His eye sockets were so deep that one could hardly find his eyeballs. Lin Nian stared into the eye sockets, which seemed to be a dark grave. Only by looking deeper could one see the deepest hidden light, which was dazzling and uncomfortable.
The old man did not speak, and the others present waited. After a while, the turbid and dusky voice could be heard saying with a little emotion, "Young hero, this is an extraordinary person."
If Lin Nian turned around, he could see the surprise on Sima Xuxu's face, and the shock on the face of the man in Tang suit who was called a historian by Li Huoyue. Li Huoyue did not react much, as if he had expected this scene to appear.
"Let's start." The old man looked at the man in Tang suit behind Lin Nian and nodded slightly.
The man in Tang suit saluted, then walked straight to the side of the white marble table and found a stone pier to sit down. He took out a green pine-patterned book from his arms, opened it and spread it on the edge of the stone table, and took out an extremely retro wolf-hair brush and a portable inkstone, ground the ink on the spot, and picked up the pen to write on the book.
[Xinmao year, Yiwei month, Bingxu day. The Sima clan leader met with the secret party hero Lin Nian in Longfeng Garden, and he happily praised him, saying: "Young hero, this is an extraordinary person."]
Lin Nian has a good vision and can see the words on the book clearly. He suddenly realized that the "historian" is really a "historian". If nothing unexpected happens, this man is the recorder responsible for recording today's meeting in full.
"The Sima clan leader is here." The woman who was sitting quietly beside the old man stood up at this time, folded her hands in front of her, and looked at everyone, "Please take your seats."
Lin Nian keenly noticed that the woman was hiding some emotions under her calmness. She seemed to be restraining herself, hiding some impulse?
"Oh my god, the last person who received this kind of evaluation was 'Boda', right? Uh, but 'Boda' seems to have died a little early." Lin Nian heard Sima Xuxu beside him muttering in a barely audible voice, "Why did the ancestor get evaluated right away? It couldn't be the Hongmen Banquet, right? But why is Auntie Ximan here too?"
Lin Nian didn't quite know what Sima Xuxu meant, but he was sure that this picturesque woman was the mother of Li Huoyue, who was named 'Ximan'.
He chose to sit down like this. The surrounding environment was very spacious and bright. The maple leaves and ginkgo trees were everywhere but did not block the view. This was a very open and bright meeting place, which also indirectly showed the orthodox sincerity and the main tone of this meeting.
"Is this Li Huoyue's mother? I have always heard Li Huoyue mention you, my aunt, and now I finally see you in person." Lin Nian did not choose to open the topic with the old patriarch of the Sima family, but looked at the mature woman in a white dress and said softly.
He didn't mean to talk about business right away. If it was a trivial matter, then it would be fine to talk about it without delay, but now the matter they might have to worry about was too obscure and sensitive.
The woman didn't reply to Lin Nian's words immediately, but looked at the Sima clan leader. After the old man nodded slightly, she looked back at Lin Nian and Li Huoyue who was sitting next to him. Then, Lin Nian saw with his own eyes that the impression of her as a beautiful lady in a painting was broken, and she showed an unexpected, almost joyful expression. "Cute"?
She leaned over to Lin Nian and said, "Oh? Did you say that Xiaoyue kept mentioning you to me? Is this true?"
"Ah, Auntie Ximan really started again," Sima Xuxu continued to mutter, staring down at the red leaves under the table, pretending to be a decoration in the yard.
Lin Nian was shocked by the "cuteness" of the other party. Yes, he could actually feel the pure "cuteness" from a woman who had given birth to a child. It was an unrestrained joy and happiness. After floating on that beautiful and heart-moving face, a chemical reaction occurred and diffused that layer of cuteness.
Originally, he thought that Li Huoyue's mother would be mature and cold, as gentle and indifferent as the Jiangnan women in the painting, but he never thought that the other party was cute. The smile on her face seemed very innocent, with a carefree and pure feeling, which was completely different from the impression he imagined.
"This is. Really." Lin Nian lied. Li Huoyue had never mentioned her mother to him, but now he felt that if he told the truth, this woman named Xi Man would definitely be disappointed. For no reason, he didn't want to see this kind of lost emotion on her face.
So mixing maturity and cuteness together is cheating, right?
Even as strong as Lin Nian was a little helpless, and his reaction to speaking was half a beat slower.
"I say, since Xiaoyueliang is willing to mention me to you, Xiaoyueliang must like you very much." Ximan stared at Linnian and blinked, holding her hands gently between her legs, and carefully observing the boy with her head tilted, ".It turns out that Xiaoyueliang likes this type of boy! No matter what, as long as the elders in the clan nod, mom will support you."
?
Linnian leaned back slightly with trembling eyebrows, Sima Xuxu beside him uttered a soft "ah" and lay on the table with a sad face, Li Huoyue lowered his head silently. Almost lowered his head under the table, and the historian beside him recorded it truthfully, and the clan leader of the Sima family sat there without joy or sadness, watching everyone silently.