The Daily Life Of Mei Furen Doting On Her Husband - Chapter 19

Wu Zhen held the sour fruit in her hand and looked at the young man chewing the sour fruit with some pity. Poor young man, had he never eaten any delicious sweet fruit? If she had known, she would have packed the fruits specially provided for the Emperor and the Empress in the apricot garden in the palace and brought them back. In this season, the fruits were not yet big, and only places like the palace got fresh sweet fruits. There was no place to buy them in other places.

Throwing the fruit in her hand back into Mei Zhuyu’s, Wu Zhen suddenly said, “Go back.” Then she rode back to the palace.

Mei Zhuyu didn’t know what she was going to do, guessing that there might be something else going on, so he could only stand there blankly and watch her figure completely disappear around the corner of the street. Then he withdrew his gaze, lowered his eyelashes somewhat dejectedly. He held the fruit that Wu Zhen had bitten. The hard-earned time together was too short, leaving him at a loss and feeling lost.

Then, not long after he returned home, the old servant brought in a basket of red fruits.

“Ah Lang, Miss Wu came over just now and said that this basket of fruit is for you.”

Mei Zhuyu understood why she suddenly turned around and left at that time. His heart skipped a beat and he couldn’t help but stand up.

“She left?”

“Yeah, just put her stuff down and left.”

Mei Zhuyu sat down again, picked up a bright red fruit, and took a bite. It was sweet. Maybe it was because it was too sweet, but Mei Zhuyu had a strange feeling. He felt as if a soft vine had grown in his body. The wildly growing branches and leaves made his skin and limbs feel slightly numb and itchy, and at the same time, they bound his heart, giving him an indescribable feeling of suffocation.

After a long time, Mei Zhuyu let out a long breath, sat down at the table, took out paper and pen, and prepared to copy a few scriptures of tranquility to calm his mind.

“Let go of desires and your mind will be at peace; clear your mind and your spirit will be clear…”

As expected, as the mind was not clear and the spirit was not pure, the desires couldn’t be eliminated.

… 

“Mei Si, what are you still dawdling about? Go now!”

“Yes, go quickly, we are all waiting. You must invite your eldest cousin out today!”

“Hurry up, are you still not one of us? We are doing this for Sister Zhen. We want to have a good relationship with him. You can’t hold us back.”

Mei Si was reluctantly pushed out by his friends and moved towards the door of his eldest cousin’s house like a paraplegic. Ever since the news of Sister Zhen’s marriage to his eldest cousin came out, the group of people who often played with her wanted to find an opportunity to meet the future “brother-in-law”. However, that “brother-in-law” was really low-key. They sent more than a dozen invitations one by one, but no one responded. They had no choice but to use Mei Si.

After all, he was a relative, so they had to give him some face by letting Mei Si personally invite him.

However, Mei Si, who was carrying everyone’s expectations, was unwilling to do so. He was the one with the most complicated emotions among the group. That was Sister Zhen! His eldest cousin wanted to marry Sister Zhen!

In fact, he was not familiar with his eldest cousin. The blood relationship between them was really weak and awkward. He had not even figured out the relationship between Sister Zhen and his eldest cousin.

Intellectually, he knew that Sister Zhen would be his cousin’s wife from then on, but emotionally, he had the illusion that his eldest cousin had become his “brother-in-law”. Who told him to always regard Sister Zhen as the leader?

Mei Si was troubled by strange questions all the way, which made his brain a little unsound. When he saw his eldest cousin who was sitting there in a cold and quiet manner, he suddenly called him, “brother-in-law.”

Mei Zhuyu: “?”

Mei Si: “…”

Mei Zhuyu didn’t know how many complicated thoughts Mei Si had gone through. He just corrected his cousin’s wrong title. “I am your cousin.”

Mei Si could only laugh dryly, “I, I know that you are my cousin.”

Fortunately, Mei Zhuyu did not dwell on the issue. He asked directly, “What do you want from me, Si Lang?”

Mei Si continued to laugh dryly, “Hahahaha, actually nothing much, it’s just that I have some friends who want to invite you to go drink with them.”

Hearing the word “drinking”, Mei Zhuyu was ready to refuse without a second thought, but he immediately heard Mei Si’s next sentence, “Everyone usually plays with Sister Zhen. Cousin, if you marry… marry Sister Zhen, you will definitely see them often in the future. It is necessary to get familiar with Sister Zhen’s friends in advance.”

Mei Zhuyu couldn’t say no. He thought for a moment with some hesitation and finally nodded under Mei Si’s expectant gaze.

Mei Si lived up to everyone’s expectations and invited his cousin out. He received praise from others, and then the group quickly came to one of the music halls they often visited.

That music house was in the East Market, very close to Mei Zhuyu’s Changle Street, but he had never been there. That was his first time coming to such a place. Even though he had heard of Wu Zhen’s reputation and knew that she liked to hang out in music houses and brothels, he had never set foot in these places and only knew a little about their situation.

It sounds incredible. After all, in those days, men with a certain status liked to meet in brothels to drink and chat. Many times, it was not for pleasure, but because it was a very popular activity, just like the nobles going out hunting together. Whether they liked it or not, they gathered in these places to chat and talk about everything in order to integrate into a certain group.

Only Mei Zhuyu, who had been in Chang’an for a year and worked as a Minister, still felt out of tune with this bustling city and the crowds of people celebrating. Because he did not like to participate in these activities, he was not popular among his colleagues and was almost excluded. Mei Zhuyu never cared about that kind of thing. It was not that he was pretending to be noble as his colleagues said. He just didn’t like it and was not used to it, so he didn’t want to come, that’s all.

So under the guidance of a group of strangers, Mei Zhuyu stepped into a music hall for the first time. His first reaction was that the magnificent and prosperous place was much livelier than he had imagined. Was this the place she liked?