The wind is gentle and the fun is endless

After Xiaoyu and the others left, Huanhuan and Xu Qu were the only ones left at the round table.

At this time, the night has fallen, the cold moonlight and the starry sky illuminate the earth, and from time to time there are a few geese calls. Huanhuan likes the scenery in the mountains very much. She feels that the life of the farmers is interesting and can make her relax.

After happily drinking a few glasses of wine, she slowly realized that Xu Qu was looking at her. She followed Xu Qu's gaze and looked down at herself. She felt that there was nothing unusual about her, so she asked, "Why are you looking at me, my husband? But what's wrong with me?"

"It's nothing, I just think the name Huanhuan is very unique." Xu Qu said.

"Well, there is a story behind this." Huanhuan wanted to keep the question in suspense, but when she saw Xu Qu's serious look, she felt that it seemed unfair, so she continued on her own.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, my father was working in another city. When my mother was about to give birth, she missed my father so much that she wrote a letter to him. As soon as my father received the letter, he rushed home, just in time to catch my mother giving birth to me prematurely. Because my mother borrowed a sentence from "Letter to My Wife" by King Wu Yue in her letter, my father gave me this name." After saying this, he Huanhuan nodded at Xu Qu.

"Oh? The Letter to My Wife by King Wu Yue? In that case, the sentence must be 'The flowers are blooming on the roadside, you can go home slowly'!" Xu Qu looked at Huan Huan with interest.

"That's right! The flowers on the road are in bloom. Can you please come back slowly?" Huanhuan gave Xu Qu a rewarding smile.

"The more I think about her, the more I think about her. As a monarch, the King of Wuyue has such tenderness for his wife. It is really touching." Xu Qu nodded slightly and said thoughtfully: "I didn't expect that my father-in-law and mother-in-law had such a story when they were young."

"It's nothing. Dad and mom have a very good relationship. The husband always does what the wife wants, which makes us, their children, feel like outsiders." Huanhuan said with an expression that it was no big deal.

"Oh? I remember that my father-in-law resigned from his official position and returned home a few years ago. I thought he was working as an official with his whole family, but I didn't expect that he was working alone. My father-in-law and mother-in-law have such a good relationship, but they have to be separated for so many years. Isn't it a very depressing thing?" Maybe it was the effect of the wine, but Xu Qu opened up and shook his head as he spoke.

"No! No!" She shook her slender little hand slowly, and then said: "Before my father resigned, he did take his family to work outside, but he only took my mother and brother with him, and left me to be raised at my grandparents' home outside Heyang City."

"Oh? Why is that?" Xu Qu looked at Huanhuan with some confusion.

"I was only eight years old at the time. My father was ordered to take up a post in Weizhou in the south. I had just recovered from a severe cold. My father was afraid that I could not stand the long journey and the climate in the south, so he decided to send me to my grandparents' home and took only my mother and brother with him. He originally planned to take me back after two or three years when he was transferred to another place. But he stayed in the south for seven years. They still could not adapt to the climate in Weizhou, so they had to resign and return home."

He spoke slowly, as if he didn't care, and raised his glass to drink.

Huanhuan said this lightly, but it made Xu Qu think deeply. Xu Qu thought that Huanhuan's family ignored their daughter's dowry and only considered finding a wife for their son, which was already very partial. He didn't expect that they had left Huanhuan alone for seven years.

Xu Qu sipped the wine in his glass carefully, while feeling sorry for Huan Xu in his heart. After a few sips of wine, he broke the silence and asked, "It must be hard to live under someone else's roof, right?"

"No, no." Hearing Xu Qu say this, Huan Huan hurriedly clarified: "Although I am only a granddaughter, my grandparents treat me very well. They run a rice shop, and I often went to the shop to play with abacus when I was a child. Because my grandparents often have to take care of the shop, and my uncle's family only has brothers who are much older than me, and no sisters of the right age to accompany me, they were afraid that I would be lonely, so they specially found Xiaoyu to accompany me. When I grew up and returned to my own home, they also gave me Xiaoyu's indenture, allowing Xiaoyu to continue to take care of me."

Xu Qu looked at Huan Huan quietly, and then he understood why the Feng family, with its strength and partiality, would give its daughter a personal maid. But, is this enough? Xu Qu turned the wine glass in his hand and took a few sips of wine.

Seeing Xu Qu drinking and looking at her for a long time without saying anything, Huanhuan suddenly felt a little shy. I don't know if it was because of the wine, but Huanhuan started to talk more.

"Don't just talk about me. The name Xu Qu is also very special. It's interesting (qu) and interesting (cu). I'm slow and you're impatient. Our names complement each other very well. I just don't know how you got this unique name?" She blinked her bright big eyes slowly and looked at Xu Qu with interest.

Xu Qu looked at Huanhuan, and his wandering thoughts were brought back by Huanhuan's words.

"Me? My name was decided by my parents long ago. They probably hope that I will be a person who has fun in life." Speaking of his parents, Xu Qu's eyes dimmed slightly for a moment.

He sat on a low stool, with his right leg straight forward, his left leg arched, his left arm resting on his left knee, and a glass of wine in his hand. After he finished speaking, he picked up the glass and raised his head to drink the wine in the glass. His posture was naturally romantic and unrestrained.

The two were silent for a while, then slowly came over under the influence of alcohol, put his hand on Xu Qu's sleeve, and said, "Tell me about your parents."

Xu Qu raised his head and looked at the sky. The sky was full of stars and the night was gentle. It was a good time to have a heart-to-heart talk.

However, if he talked about his happiness with the wrong person, it would be considered showing off, and if he talked about his sadness with the wrong person, he would be accused of being hypocritical. And was Huanhuan the right person for Xu Qu to talk to? Xu Qu hesitated, after all, he had been bearing everything alone for so many years.

Xu Qu looked at Huanhuan without any expression. His eyes were so deep that Huanhuan couldn't read his meaning.

After a moment of silence, Xu Qu finally spoke: "My mother comes from a military family. Thirty years ago, the country had just been settled, and there were constant turmoil in the northern border. The border was in danger, and my grandfather followed the emperor's order to go to the battlefield and vowed to defend the border. My uncles followed in the army, and my grandmother died early. As a result, only my twelve-year-old mother was left at home, which was equivalent to my grandparents moving the whole family to the northern border."

Seeing Xu Qu speaking, Huanhuan, who was sitting on the small stone bench, couldn't help but bend his legs, folded his hands on his raised knees, put his head on his hands, looked at Xu Qu and listened carefully.

"Although my mother was only twelve years old at the time, she and my father had been engaged since childhood. As the army was about to march out, my maternal grandfather and my grandfather discussed letting my father, who was only thirteen at the time, and my twelve-year-old mother get married first. This way, my maternal grandfather would have one less thing to worry about and could focus on making decisions in the army."

After hearing this, Huanhuan finally understood what Uncle Ye meant by "growing up with Xu Qu's father and mother", and thought this plot was even more interesting than the storybook, so she half tilted her head and listened with great interest.

"After my parents got married, they have always been together. They have similar interests and are in harmony with each other. They are a very close couple. Yonghe Village is their favorite place. The path lined with crabapples that you see during the day were planted by my father and mother themselves." Xu Qu paused here.

She slowly recalled the scene of herself falling off a horse during the day and couldn't help feeling shy. Then she thought of the beautiful scenery under the crabapple flowers and the couplets in the main hall and couldn't help feeling that her parents-in-law were so romantic.

Huanhuan sighed as he poured a glass of wine for Xu Qu and himself. Xu Qu took the glass and paused, then continued to speak slowly: "Later, when my mother was 20 years old, she had a difficult birth. Although my father hired the best doctors and midwives, my mother still passed away after giving birth to me..."

Xu Qu stopped, raised his head and drank the whole glass of wine.

Huanhuan also lowered her voice when she heard this. She couldn't help but frowned, and a trace of pity flashed in her eyes. The birth of a new life and the departure of an old friend, this joy and sorrow is really a difficult thing to choose; and when a person's mother dies on his birthday, every birthday thereafter will not feel joy but full of grief. This is simply too sad a thing.

Thinking of this, Huan Huan also lowered her head and slowly tasted the wine in her hand. Before she knew it, she had already drunk a glass of wine. She silently raised her hand and stroked Xu Qu's sleeve again. The wide cuffs revealed Xu Qu's tightly clenched fist. She lowered her head and looked at Xu Qu's fist, and said softly, "It doesn't matter. I will accompany you now."

Anyway, Xu Qu couldn't hear her, so as long as he didn't see her, she could say whatever she wanted. From now on, what she said when she raised her head would be for Xu Qu to hear, and what she said when she lowered her head would be for herself to hear.

Thinking of this, Huan Huan raised his head and asked, "Then you have never been to my grandfather's house and have never dealt with his relatives?"

Xu Qu looked into the distance with his eyes slowly, as if recalling something. He said slowly, "No, when I was ten years old, I followed the Shanghuai caravan to the northern border and lived there for half a year."

"When you were ten years old? Alone?" Huanhuan asked in surprise.

Xu Qu looked back and saw Huan Huan asking this question. He answered naturally, "Yes, when I was ten years old, I followed the caravan alone. I didn't have my parents or sister with me. I didn't even bring Youcheng with me. I went to my grandfather's place in the northern border."

"You are so awesome!" Huanhuan admired Xu Qu sincerely. She always thought that she was brave, but she didn't dare to do so when she was ten years old.

"So what is your maternal grandparents' home, the Northern Frontier, like?" Huanhuan asked curiously.

"Have you ever heard of Ouyang Xiu's poem 'Border Household'? 'My family has been a border household for generations, and we are always prepared for the barbarians every year. The children are trained to ride horses, and the women can bend bows. The barbarian dust rises day and night, and the barbarian cavalry treats them as if they are nothing. Whenever they meet, they shoot at each other, and both sides are often killed or injured.' It's probably something like this." Xu Qu answered slowly and patiently and seriously, and he even touched his forehead with his slender fingers, as if he was reminiscing.

"How are your grandparents treating you? Do you miss them now?" The slow concern seemed natural.

Is someone good to you? Do you miss someone? No one has ever asked Xu Qu such questions.

Not to mention those outsiders who only saw the wealth of the Xu family, even the people in the Xu family only thought that he was the only legitimate son of the second branch of the Xu family, and that he was the heir to a huge industry at a young age, but no one had ever cared about such issues.

Xu Qu didn't know how to answer for a moment, or rather, he was not sure whether he should answer what was in his heart.

Xu Qu took a sip of wine, thinking, without saying anything. He was sitting a little higher, so he had to lower his head slightly when looking at Huan Xu, looking down at Huan Xu. At this moment, Huan Xu was slightly raising his head, quietly waiting for Xu Qu's answer. His eyes were full of concern and care, which made Xu Qu feel a little relieved.

Suddenly, Xu Qu laughed and asked slowly and curiously, "What are you laughing at?"

Xu Qu shook his head and said, "Nothing, it's just that no one has ever asked me this question before, so it's a little strange."

"My grandparents treated me very well." Xu Qu went on to say, "At that time, I had not yet been poisoned. My grandfather personally taught me martial arts and military skills, such as lying on the ground and listening to the sound of horse hooves to identify people coming from afar. My uncle took me to visit the scenery of northern Xinjiang, and my cousins played with me. I had a good time in northern Xinjiang." Xu Qu smiled faintly after saying this.

Xu Qu looks very good when he smiles. Then I realize that he is a bit like Xiangyue, especially his eyes, which have a very nice shape. When he smiles, his eyes sparkle like stars and are very moving.

Huanhuan stared at Xu Qu for a long time with inquiring eyes. Suddenly Xu Qu turned his head and looked at her. She smiled shyly, lowered her head with half her eyes, and stroked the wine glass back and forth in her hands. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she raised her head again and looked at Xu Qu and asked, "What happened next?"

"Later? Later I followed the caravan back. After that I never went to the border again, nor did I see my maternal relatives again. I only exchanged letters with them occasionally." Xu Qu returned to his previous coldness, but Huan Huan always felt that there was a hint of regret and nostalgia in his words.

The night wind was gentle, making the leaves rustle and blowing a few strands of hair. He slowly gathered the messy hair and said nothing, just sitting quietly very close to Xu Qu.

The moonlight is like water, the sky is full of stars, the night breeze is intoxicating, the world is so quiet, everything is just right.