73

Gu Yuanbai watched the rain in his room, and Chu Wei played the qin in tune with the sound of the rain.

The six arts of a gentleman, rites, music, archery, imperialism, calligraphy, and mathematics, these six arts were mandatory for ancient gentlemen. Gu Yuanbai was a fake gentleman, no more pure than a pure ancient gentleman.

Chu Wei is an excellent example of a standard ancient gentleman.

Gu Yuanbai didn't know how to play the guqin, but it didn't affect his appreciation of it. Tian Fusheng brewed a pot of hot tea and poured him a cup to bring it to him, Gu Yuanbai held the tea in his hand, savoring the aroma of the tea, looking at the rain outside, his nerves relaxing and squinting his eyes in comfort.

After a while, a boy in the Chu Mansion ran over and reported outside, "Young Master, there are people outside the door who have come to visit, and the visitor is the Grand Duke in the Xue Mansion."

Chu Wei's movement of playing the zither lurched, and the melodious sound of the zither came to an abrupt end as he looked up at Gu Yuanbai, "Your Holiness, it should be Lord Xue who has come."

Gu Yuanbai lazily said, "Let him come in."

After a while, Xue Yuan, who was carrying a birdcage and an umbrella, slowly stepped into the eyes of the two men.

Xue Yuan's steps were slow, and the curtain of rain obscured his figure. The man was still dressed in black, and Gu Yuanbai sat up, his gaze on the birdcage in Xue Yuan's hand. As soon as Xue Yuan stepped into the corridor, he asked, "Where did the birds come from?"

Xue Yuan approached and placed the birdcage in front of Gu Yuanbai's body, and he squatted down after him, opening the cage while casually joking, "I said I wanted to catch a bird to give His Holiness a glance, but it turned out that as soon as the cage was opened, this little thing burrowed in."

His palm reached into the cage and grasped the sparrow in his hand, "Your Holiness, look, does it look like the bird that took your jade trigger finger last time?"

Half of the grabbed bird's sparrow body was exposed beyond the palm of his hand, and Gu Yuanbai raised an eyebrow, "Don't all sparrows look the same?"

He raised his hand to touch the bird, the sparrow's feathers were gray in color, not like the glossy and shiny ones of the expensive birds, but they were comfortable to touch. Xue Yuan's gaze fell on Gu Yuanbai's thumb, where he wore a white jade trigger.

The corner of Xue Yuan's mouth tugged up, "Your Holiness is right, sparrows are all the same, who can tell who."

He withdrew his eyes and saw Chu Wei, so he politely said, "Lord Chu, it's been a long time."

As soon as he saw him, Chu Wei thought of the words the head guard had just said. His senses towards Xue Yuan were really not good, and the moment he saw him, he was disgusted from the bottom of his heart, nodding coldly, "Lord Xue."

Gu Yuanbai's fingertips would gently sweep over Xue Yuan's hand a few times as he stroked the bird, and more often than not, it itched unbearably. Xue Yuan suddenly reached out and took hold of his fingertips, lifting Gu Yuanbai's hand upward and smiling, "Your Holiness, the feather is here, you're touching my hand."

"...... "Gu Yuanbai withdrew his hand and stopped touching it, and said expressionlessly, "Xue Qing has a heart."

Xue Yuan smiled and threw the sparrow in the cage. Setting it aside, he slowly stood up, then looked around, naturally assuming the demeanor of a host family, "Where's the chessboard?"

Someone on the side heard the words and smartly moved the chessboard over. Gu Yuanbai still glanced at it expressionlessly, "Let's have a game of hand-to-hand talk between Qing Xue and Qing Chu."

Xue Yuan was not disappointed, he reached out his hand and courteously said, "Lord Chu, please."

Chu Wei and his double seated, two people divided into black and white chess, each other silent, look like harmony, however, the chessboard tit for tat unceasingly.

Gu Yuanbai watched from the sidelines for a moment, and he finally realized why Chang Yuyan had said that Xue Jiuyao's chess path was similar to his. Chess is a battlefield, testing a person's ability to organize his troops and his overall thinking on the big picture.

Xue Yuan, this person pretended to be more disciplined and became more inscrutable, his essence is still like a mad dog, the sharpness from the beginning, it is directly pointed at the enemy's life.

When Gu Yuanbai saw half of it, he knew that Chu Wei was bound to lose.

Chu Wei's chess path is four flat and stable, the foundation is very deep, the next step thought of three steps, he is far-sighted, and with Gu Yuanbai played chess, such a chess path in mind. But there is no way to have a number, the disk is again stable, a hard to hide will eventually reveal the cracks.

Gu Yuanbai stood up and walked out onto the porch to watch the rain, listening to the sound of the rain and the sound of chess being played, and closed his eyes.

I don't know how long it took, but a burst of warmth came close behind him. Xue Yuan draped his coat over Gu Yuanbai's body before stepping aside, "His Holiness likes to read books, so it turns out that he also likes to watch the rain."

"It's comfortable to listen to," Gu Yuanbai was a bit tired, "A rainy day is good for resting."

Xue Yuan said, "Sleepy?"

Gu Yuanbai said, "Xue Qing had better go watch your bird."

Xue Yuan laughed a little lowly, "My bird is in my own body."

His words were so softly spoken that Gu Yuanbai thought he had misheard them, his eyelids jumped and he turned his head skeptically to look at Xue Yuan, "What did you say?"

"The bird I brought you to see is in the house," Xue Yuan said, "what's the point of looking at it, you can't even understand the words."

"That's an interesting thing to say," Gu Yuanbai, "Is Xue Qing wanting the birds to understand what you're saying? I am laughing."

Some rain dew blown in by the wind floated on the hair in front of his forehead, and Xue Yuan's voice suddenly softened, "Your Holiness, it's raining outside, don't stand so close."

It was just that his voice was hoarse, and that softness was hidden in a voice so dumb it contained grains of stone, and it just couldn't be found.

Almost at the same time, behind the two also came a warm voice, this voice is clear and warm, good as if through the pearl buckle jade, round and melodious, "Your Holiness, come in to avoid the rain."

The highs and lows are immediately apparent.

Xue Yuan smiled seemingly and followed Gu Yuanbai into the house.

Room to stay dull, Chu Wei and Xue Yuan with the same time, the two surprisingly who did not speak. Fortunately, this rain soon stopped, before and after only half an hour's time.

Gu Yuanbai had no intention of staying at Chu Wei's home, he was about to leave, but Chu Wei remembered something and hurriedly said, "Your Holiness wait a moment."

He turned around to get something, when his afterglow caught a glimpse of Xue Yuan, and coldly changed his voice to say, "Lord Xue will go with me to get some clothes to warm up the body for His Holiness?"

Xue Yuan walked up with his eyes narrowed, and together they disappeared down the corridor to the end of the road.

Gu Yuanbai looked at their backs, two people slender posture, are all healthy body good son, so look, is a match.

He looked at it for a while and then moved his eyes away, but suddenly saw a small head poking out from behind a column on the side, Gu Yuanbai smiled, "Zhi Zhi'er, come here."

Chu Xiaosi stepped out from behind the pillar with a mortified look, he clutched the corner of his small coat and bowed to the saint to admit his mistake: "Little boy is not a little boy who doesn't know how to be polite, little boy came to look for his nephew."

Gu Yuanbai said, "Your nephew is not here now, however."

Chu Xiaosi was so confused that he tilted his face, "What about nephew Ziguo?"

With a well-behaved and obedient child like this, Gu Yuanbai always had some bad taste.

"Your nephew," Gu Yuanbai pretended to ponder for a moment, then suddenly smiled deeply, "Zhi Zhi'er, I've eaten a rather delicious dish before, which you should have never eaten."

The little boy swallowed his saliva and said in a disciplined manner, "Please also guide your holiness."

"Put Chu Wei in the frying pan and fry it, then dip it in sauce and scallions," Gu Yuanbai's lips curled up and deliberately lowered his voice, "Delicious, so gluttonous that Xue Yuan next door cried."

Chu Xiaosi was horrified, her face turned white, and she sobbed with her beads of tears, "Has Zi Gu, Zi Gu nephew been eaten?"

"Cough." When the child really cried, Gu Yuanbai felt guilty again, he touched his nose and was about to jokingly tell the truth when Tian Fusheng next to him violently started coughing.

Gu Yuanbai lurched, turned around and looked back, Xue Yuan and Chu Wei stood not far away, two people a slightly raised eyebrow, a complex face, all looking at Gu Yuanbai.

Gu Yuanbai asked rhetorically, "What are you standing there for? Don't come over yet."

As soon as Chu Wei walked over, Chu Xiaosi cried and jumped into his arms. Chu Wei whispered to comfort his fourth uncle, the original complexity in his heart slowly turning to crying and laughing.

Tian Fusheng took the cloak to the saint on the shoulders, the saint coughed twice, Chu Wei took the fourth uncle to the saint to the outside of the house, uncle and nephew together to the saint salute, waiting for the saint to leave.

On the way, Xue Yuan followed behind Gu Yuanbai and suddenly said, "Your Holiness, why do you crave to cry for me?"

Gu Yuanbai turned the tables, "What are you still following me for?"

Xue Yuan's hand was still carrying the birdcage, and he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the words, "Then the minister is here to see off your holiness."

"...... "Gu Yuanbai's hidden annoyance in his heart surged up, this annoyance was inexplicable, Gu Yuanbai pressed on and was about to leave in big strides when Xue Yuan called out to him in a muffled voice from the back, "Your Holiness. "

Gu Yuanbai paused in his footsteps.

"His Majesty's jade trigger finger was given a replacement," Xue Yuan, "I wonder if the previous one is still there?"

Gu Yuanbai pursed his lips straight and didn't say anything.

"His Holiness said that he had to fulfill a request of mine earlier," Xue Yuan's voice was low, "I think about it, if not use it now."

"If Your Majesty doesn't like that jade trigger, please don't throw it away and return it to me. This jade trigger finger I like so much that I can leave it to my future daughter-in-law."

"Xue Qing, the world is mine," Gu Yuanbai's words are correct, his voice a cold, "my jade trigger finger, even if I do not like, but also have to stay in my private library inside the birth of ash."

This sentence, just like when he said, "My rivers and mountains are like a painting," made Xue Yuan's heart pound again.

Gu Yuanbai's words were so domineering that they were exactly what Xue Yuan wanted. Does he mean anything to Xue Yuan or not.

A gust of wind blew, his hair ruffled the tip of his nose, and Gu Yuanbai coughed in a low voice. The coughs were dull, one after the other, and there was hardly any time for him to calm down.

The people around him panicked and called out "Your Holiness" and "Towel", but there was no hot water around, and no one who was panicked had the guts to go up and support him and pat his back.

Xue Yuan sighed and quickly stepped forward, pushing aside everyone in his way. The guards and eunuchs, step by step, walked to Gu Yuanbai's front, then took him in his arms, letting him lean against him, gently smoothing his thin, bony, protruding back.

Gu Yuanbai grabbed onto his shirt, her fingers turning white, her head leaning against Xue Yuan's body, most of her weight supported by Xue Yuan.

Xue Yuan smoothed his breath while looking up at the gloomy sky in the distance.

Gu Yuanbai coughed his head off and his brain swelled, and when his hands were weak and about to slide down, Xue Yuan pressed his hands for him.

"You're always in such bad health."

The tone was low, like a puppy that had gotten wet.

"But you can't always come and bully me just because you're weak," he, "said."