The fire was about to be extinguished, and the blackened wooden bars were covered with gray-white ash, and there were a few sparks left, and Xue Yuxin didn't know when he had gotten up and left. The winter padded jacket quietly returned to his body.

Several of the surviving guards struggled to get up from the pool of blood and began to clean up the battlefield.

The bodies of their comrades were carefully lined up in the forest for burial, while the corpses of the enemy were piled up on the ground, waiting to be burned to ashes by a fire, and the blood on the ground had dried up and solidified, turning from bright red to a lifeless dark red, scattered in a messy and weak way among the grass. It has become another kind of nourishment for the vigorous growth of life.

Dongluo opened his eyes at some point, as if he had just woken up or maybe it was ...... It's been a long time since I've been awake. I just don't want to open my eyes.

Dongluo looked at the busy guards, watching them like hard-working ants constantly carrying corpses, some enemies and some comrades. He suddenly had a sense of absurdity. As if they were burying not their comrades, but themselves. As if they were burning not the enemy, but themselves.

At this moment, Dongluo felt in a trance that maybe for the dead, the living are the real dead!

......

......

The assassination of Mangshan seems to be the only checkpoint that hinders the caravan from entering Luoyang. After the caravan left the North Mangshan Road, the caravan returned to its old days as if it were running on the mountains and pastures of the Hetao Plain. Calm and bland.

For the next few days, the Xue brothers and sisters stayed in the car and did not appear in front of everyone.

Although there were only a dozen people left in the caravan, the guards who survived with great difficulty still insisted on riding horses around the carriage despite their injuries, and the old man Hua Qingyun got into a carriage alone. Several seriously wounded guards were in the back carriages, and as for Dongluo and Dahei, they were riding their old horses, far behind.

In the plains, the old horses that fall in winter can barely keep up with the pace of the large army, which is moving slowly or unconsciously. But when he entered the Mangshan Mountains, the weakness of the old horse came. Although after the battle in North Mangshan Road, there were many horses without owners. But Dongluo didn't choose them, but still rode his skinny horse and followed slowly.

Set up camp and rest, go to the river to fetch water and wash rice and slaughter fish in winter, make a very rich dinner, one person and three beasts divide the main dish into their respective rice bowls, and then eat happily in front of a few sauerkraut peppers, eat until sweaty, and feel comfortable.

A man with a cold face walked in, looked at the scene in front of him, shook his head and smiled: "You don't want to go over there to eat a big pot of rice." It turned out that he was secretly opening a small stove here alone. ”

Dongluo smiled lightly: "Brother Li, I still like to have fewer people when I eat." ”

The name of the person who came was Li Chengliang, the leader of the Loulan Royal Guard, who performed well in Mangshan North Province, and won the trust of Prince Loulan. It's just that there are only a few loyal subordinates left now, and the leader's state of mind must be complicated and sentimental.

The two sides are comrades-in-arms who have lived and died together in the North Mountain Road, and the friendship poured out of blood is much more solid than the ordinary interaction, and although few people saw the performance of Dongluo in the battle, there is no doubt that he saved them all.

So these days, when he is camping and resting, Li Chengliang will come here from time to time to be a guest, and occasionally bring a pot or two of spirits to eat a meal or two.

"I know that you have no problem going to Luoyang by yourself, but I told His Royal Highness the Prince your intention to leave. Li Chengliang looked at Dongluo and said apologetically: "His Royal Highness the prince said that you can't leave for the time being." ”

Dongluo scratched his head, "Then let's follow it again." ”

Li Chengliang said again: "His Royal Highness the Prince wants to see you. ”

He was inevitably a little surprised that the man in the carriage wanted to see him, and after asking again uncertainly, he received an affirmative answer. Dongluo wrinkled his brows and thought about it for a long time, but he didn't come up with anything. So he decided not to think about anything, so he used the water in the brazier to burn the fire next to the car, explained the two sentences, and walked forward.

The curtain of the carriage was lifted, the dim light was shining warmly, and a teenager with a blanket on his legs was reading a book in the dim light. Ignoring the girl who turned her back to herself at the back of the carriage and gently kicked the broken thoughts of the carriage with a look of grievance and resentment.

"Xue Nianci, if you don't let me go out to play, I'll tell my mother when I go back. Let her beat you to death. ”

"And tell my dad that someone is going to kill us, and you won't come to save me. In vain, I tried to save you when you were in danger. ”

"You're more hateful than the big bastard who cheated me on my snacks. Xue Nianci, you remember it for me. ”

The young man named Xue Nianci was browsed by the girl's broken thoughts, but he was still unmoved: "Whatever you say, if you don't go back to the clan anyway, I won't let you out." ”

Xue Nianci put down the book in her hand, clasped her hands on her knees, looked at Dongluo, who was slowly coming under the slanting sunset, and said gently: "I should have gone to see you in person and thanked you in person." But due to physical reasons, and because you are in a hurry to leave, I asked you to come and talk about it. ”

Dongluo quickly glanced at his legs under the precious blanket and the dark iron wheelchair under him, then withdrew his gaze, looked at his eyes and said, "It's okay, I don't know why His Royal Highness the Prince came to me." ”

The girl who was hiding in the corner and kicking the carriage heard the sound of winter falling and hurriedly raised her head, and hurriedly looked behind him, but behind him there was no black existence that was different from the night, so the girl had to bow her head silently and continue to kick the hardwood carriage unconsciously.

The young man in the wheelchair smiled: "You should be able to guess what I came to you for." ”

"Sorry, I couldn't guess. Dongluo replied honestly.

......

The young man in the wheelchair breathed for a moment, and then smiled in surprise: "Not letting you leave is that I once promised a person to send you to Luoyang safely, and now there are still a few days to go to Luoyang, so please ask you to stay for a while!"

After thinking seriously for a long time, Dongluo said, "That person should be my Uncle Li Mu."

"Uncle Li?" Xue Nianci repeated the title imperceptibly, and after a little hesitation, she said, "Yes, it's your Uncle Li." Someone who was supposed to be my uncle. But it's a pity that he escaped on the wedding night. ”

"Escaped. Dongluo obviously heard this secret about Li Mu for the first time, and then asked uncertainly again: "Are you talking to the same person as me?"

"Yes. But don't worry, my aunt said that she didn't hate him, and she didn't allow us Snow Clan to trouble him, so their grievances naturally won't affect my attitude towards you. Xue Nianci seemed to think of something, and then added: "However, I can't represent my sister. ”

Dongluo's face froze, and he finally understood why Xue Yuxin threw stones and splashed himself when he saw him for the first time. Also came to his own trouble many times. I secretly said in my heart that there is really no hatred in this world for no reason!

"Uncle Li, Uncle Li, the romantic debt you provoked, but it hurt me!"

The oil light in the carriage was dim, and it seemed that there was really a lack of oil, after Xue Nianci finished speaking, he then looked down at his feet, and sighed: "Even if Li Mu is your Uncle Li, then I already know who you are, we used to meet when we were children." At that time, you, along with your father Chen Baxian and your Uncle Li, were investigating a missing person at the border with Loulan in Dazhou. ”

"Are you the little cripple back then?" Dongluo looked at Xue Nianci's face carefully, seriously remembering where he had seen such a face once upon a time, and after a while, he suddenly said excitedly: "Didn't you be taken away, how did you become the prince of Loulan?"

Dongluo suddenly remembered that one summer was the busy season for farming, and when there was a shortage of labor, a large number of people from several villages on the border of the Great Zhou Dynasty were missing. This incident caused Zhang Turing, the county guard of Yunzhong County at that time, to be furious, and Zhang Tuling immediately dispatched the personnel under his jurisdiction to investigate the matter with all his might. Chen Baxian is also among them.

When they investigated the border of Loulan, they finally discovered that it was a demon cultivator hiding in Loulan who sacrificed people to practice magic skills. Enraged, Chen Ba first left Dongluo in a border village. Then he went on a quest to find the devil.

Dongluo, who was wandering around the border village, heard the intermittent cry of a child, and following the child's cry, he found Xue Nianci, who was a little lame at the time.

Chen Ba went out early and returned late first, bringing them food from time to time, and Dongluo, after helping the little lame man take a bath, picked up a few shabby door panels and made him a simple wheelchair, pushing him around every day.

Ten days later, a man and a woman also came to the slaughtered village, saw Dongluo and the two, and wanted to take them both away, but Dongluo was unwilling to leave. But the little cripple left with them.

Xue Nianci had tears in her eyes but said with a smile: "Brother Luo, don't you push me down for a walk?"

Dongluo also laughed and jumped into the carriage with a fist and pounded on his chest and said, "Push." Didn't you kid recognize me a long time ago? ”

"No, I just recognized it. Xue Nianci hurriedly said.

......

"After I went with the two of them that day, I followed them to Loulan Kingdom, they are members of the royal family of Loulan Kingdom, and they are also investigating the disappearance of people in Loulan, and they happened to come to our village, and I became their adopted son. The Loulan Kingdom is a vassal country built by the Snow Clan, and now the Loulan Kingdom has been destroyed, and the royal family members have gradually returned to the Snow Clan. But some people were afraid of the division of power and didn't want us to go back, so this assassination was made. ”

Dongluo pushed Xue Nianci silently walked in the dark, silent most of the time, listening. Occasionally, I would ask a little bit to find out what was going on.

"When I was in Weicheng, I asked Uncle Li who he was, and he said that you were his own son. If you want my Snow Clan to send you safely to Luoyang. My sister thought that Uncle Li abandoned her aunt and married a new love and gave birth to you, so she deliberately made trouble for you. I apologize to you on behalf of my sister. We haven't seen each other for almost a decade! You've changed so much over the years. So I didn't expect it to be you. ”

"I already knew that you were in Weicheng, and I wanted to come to see you for a long time, but you also know my legs...... It wasn't until you said Uncle Li just now that I was sure of your identity. ”

Xue Nianci asked with tears in her eyes, "Do you know what happened to the people who killed my whole village later?"

"Dead ......"

The two were speechless.

Only a little star shone lightly on the rustle left by the mountain breeze through the pine waves. Low and full of sadness.

The spring breeze blew green the withered yellow branches and pastures again.

Heaven and earth are like old friends.