sbdcsierra Chapter 367: Why not just change the name?
Chapter 367: Why not just change the name?
Lu Yangyang breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "You should have said so earlier."
Then he raised his hand and hit Su's mother on the back of the neck, and Su's mother fainted before she could react.
Lu Yangyang pointed at the girls and said, "Tie them up and put them on the bed. Someone will come to deal with them in the morning. Before that, don't let anyone find out. If they do, you're all dead. Do you understand?"
The girls nodded hurriedly. Even their mother, Su, had been knocked unconscious, so how could they dare to say anything more?
Lu Yangyang put away the cleaver and gave the young man a wink.
The young man understood and walked towards the door, and Lu Yangyang immediately followed.
Once outside, the young man closed the door and said to the two guards, "The two lords have already retired for the night. I'll head back now, and you can escort them back first thing tomorrow morning."
"Yes, Young Master Lu," the guard replied respectfully.
Lu Yangyang, carrying a tray, followed the young man and swaggered away from Baihualou.
Once they reached a secluded spot, the young man reached out and pinched Lu Yangyang's ear: "Lu Yangyang, what are you doing here?"
"Hey, hey, let go of me first. How dare you ask me? I haven't even asked you yet! Lu Wei, weren't you studying well back home? I even went out of my way to send you so many books and money back home. Instead of studying hard to become a scholar, why are you in Jiangnan? Jiangnan is thousands of miles away from Qingzhou. Don't tell me you're just passing through here on vacation!" Lu Yangyang slapped Lu Wei's hand away and looked him up and down.
Lu Wei was also sizing her up.
They hadn't seen each other for more than two years, and both of them had changed a lot.
Especially Lu Yangyang, if Lu Wei hadn't been so familiar with her style, he would never have recognized her. Girls change a lot as they grow up, and she is completely different from the skinny little girl she used to be.
Lu Wei has also grown much taller than before, transforming from a naive boy into a handsome young man.
Neither of them expected that they would meet here so unexpectedly.
Lu Wei was the poor scholar who lived next door to Lu Yangyang when she was still in Qinghe Village.
When she was three years old, the He family abandoned her in the mountains to fend for herself. It was Uncle Zhou, a hunter who lived at the end of the village, who heard her cries for help and rescued her. Uncle Zhou took her in for a few days and treated her injuries, but he also had a family to support, including a sick person. His family was already struggling financially, and having her would only make their already impoverished lives worse. Although she was young then, she had already suffered a lot of abuse in the He family for the past three years. She knew she couldn't stay and be a burden to Uncle Zhou, so she left his house.
Most of the villagers in Qinghe Village were simple, honest people, lacking the extreme malice of the He family. However, they couldn't offer her much pity either; giving her a meal was already a great kindness. She wandered around the village for some time. As winter approached, the weather became unbearably cold, and with nowhere to go and unwilling to trouble others, she secretly slipped into a dilapidated house at the foot of the mountain. A madwoman lived there; no one knew how long she had been there, but the villagers were afraid of her, saying she would attack people with a knife when she went mad. It was said that an old bachelor from the neighboring village tried to take advantage of her and was slashed with a knife; after that, no one dared to come again.
Lu Yangyang was also scared, but she was so cold that she would freeze to death if she didn't have a place to stand. So she had no choice but to endure her fear and sneak inside, at least to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
She was too young then, and often heard the madwoman's cries at night. She was terrified, trembling and too afraid to move, worried that the madwoman might also kill her with a knife during a fit of madness. She had nightmares and couldn't sleep at night. But when the world was completely silent, she would hear the sound of reading next door. They read late into the night and very early in the morning. In those first few desolate nights, it gave her a little bit of reality, making her feel less lonely and gradually less afraid.
When she realized the madwoman wouldn't harm her, she cautiously and tentatively tried to get along with her. When she discovered the woman would occasionally regain her senses, they were finally able to communicate a little. Later, she called her aunt, and finally, she had her first family member to rely on in this world. She began to learn things from her aunt, secretly following Uncle Zhou when he went hunting to quietly learn how to hunt. She would also continue to squat in the corner every day listening to the scholar next door read aloud, secretly memorizing along.
She didn't understand what that meant, but she figured that anything that could make a scholar forget to eat and sleep every day must be something good.
Until one day he discovered it, he wasn't angry because she was eavesdropping every day. Instead, he asked her what her name was and why she was eavesdropping on him reading.
Lu Yangyang was stumped for the first time. Back then, everyone still called her Cao Ya, just like when she was in the He family. But after the He family abandoned her, she began to hate that name intensely. So when Lu Wei asked her, she suddenly became angry and loudly told him that she had no name, she didn't want the surname He, they abandoned her, they didn't want her anymore, and she didn't want to be called He Cao Ya!
Lu Wei said, "If you don't like it, why not just change the name?"
She suddenly became happy. Yes, she could change her name! But what should she change it to? She asked Lu Wei, but Lu Wei told her to think for herself. She was only three years old at the time, what could she possibly think of? So she asked Lu Wei what his name was, and Lu Wei told her his name and explained that it was the "Wei" in "Zhan Bi Luo Yi, Wei Shui Yang Yang".
Lu Yangyang remembered that sentence; it was a line from the Book of Songs that she often heard Lu Wei recite.
Suddenly her eyes lit up and she said, "Yangyang, I'll call her Lu Yangyang."
She was extremely happy that day, running all over the village to tell everyone that she had a name now. Her name was Lu Yangyang, not He Caoya. She had her own name.
She gradually became familiar with Lu Wei, but Lu Wei was always busy. His father had abandoned his wife and children, leaving him and his mother to depend on each other. The family was very poor, and his mother insisted that he study, so he studied day and night, never daring to slack off for a moment. Even when he accidentally fell and sprained his leg, he didn't dare tell his mother, secretly enduring the pain for fear of wasting money if she found out. It was Lu Yangyang who discovered this and, with her then-unskilled skills, set his bone and used herbs she had gathered from the mountains. In short, by sheer chance, she cured him, preventing him from developing a chronic condition.
What did Lu Wei say back then? He said that he would definitely repay her when he became the top scholar in the imperial examination.
The first thing she gave in return was some scraps of paper and pens; it was only after that that she learned to read for the first time.
For the next ten years or so, whenever she had the means, she would help him out, hoping that he would actually become a top scholar in the imperial examinations.
As a result, before he could even take the imperial examination, she went to the capital.
Two years have passed since we last met, and it feels like we've lived in another world.
The two looked at each other.
"You speak first."
"You speak first."
in unison.