"Does Mr. Chen want to return to China as soon as possible?" Zhang Na asked, she smiled and said: "This is very simple, Vladivostok and many cities in China have direct flights, let me check - Beijing, Huhai, Jinmen, Wuyang, Green Island, these cities can fly back directly." May I ask Mr. Chen, where are you going in China?"

"If possible, the capital. ”

"Okay, wait a minute. Zhang Na made a phone call and spoke in Russian for a while, and then she quickly told Xu Yan: "Mr. Chen, we have been contacted, there is a direct flight to Beijing tomorrow, around one o'clock at noon." In this case, you will be back in the capital at about three o'clock in the afternoon - what do you think of this flight?"

Xu Yan is naturally indispensable, coming out of Japan, his mood and pressure have relaxed, and he is not in a hurry to go back. He nodded and said, "In this case, I will have to bother the two of you to help book tickets." ”

At that moment, the two staff members drove Xu Yan to a hotel near the airport, helped Xu Yan open a room, helped Xu Yan settle down, and they left. Xu Yan sent the two young staff members downstairs to the door of the hotel and thanked them.

The two young people seemed quite touched by Xu Yan's enthusiasm - in their opinion, although this Mr. Chen was very young and unidentified, he could alarm the ministry to call the consulate overnight, and it must be a big man with a not simple identity. They were really touched by the fact that such a big man could be so polite to two ordinary employees.

Seeing off the two staff members, Xu Yan returned to the hotel room and turned on the TV. After adjusting a few stations, I found that there are still a lot of TV programs here. In addition to Russian-language channels, there are also channels in Chinese and Korean - especially in Korean. is still an idol drama, a group of beautiful men and women cry and shout with exaggerated expressions, Xu Yan can't help but laugh.

"If Xuan Yun sees it, she will definitely like it very much, right? It's strange to say, how can a girl as smart as Xuan Yun like a shallow stick play so much?"

At this time, Xu Yan suddenly woke up: "What's the matter?

Xu Yan opened the window and looked at the brightly lit city in the distance, but his mood was gloomy and melancholy. In just three months together. The beautiful and intelligent Xiuzhen girl has already occupied a huge weight in her heart, and she has become accustomed to Zhu Youxiang's existence. No matter what happens, no matter what difficulties she encounters, the first thing she thinks of is always: If Xuan Yun was here, what would she think?

What will she do?

What should I do so that I don't embarrass Xuan Yun?

The mysterious girl has subtly and silently changed her thoughts and life.

Looking at the starry dark sky outside the window, Xu Yan stood for a long time. The heart is surging. During the day, during the tense escape process, Xu Yan didn't have time to think about it at all, but in the dead of night. On this night in a foreign country, he finally had to face the cruel truth alone: Zhu Youxiang died to save himself.

If it weren't for his clumsiness and incompetence, Xuan Yun would not have died.

Huge remorse and sorrow filled Xu Yan's heart. His mood ached as if he had been stabbed.

Xu Yan originally had no habit of smoking, but at this moment. He suddenly wanted to smoke a cigarette.

At this time, Xu Yan was very impulsive. He wanted to fly back to Japan immediately, back to Mount Maruttake in Hakone, back to the barren slope where there had been a gap in time and space, and he wanted to see if Zhu Youxiang had returned.

In Xu Yan's heart, he always had a hope: in case, Zhu Youxiang finally broke free from the turbulence of time and space, and when she left, she returned to the barren mountain. At that time, she was unaccompanied, alone, a beautiful girl, adrift in a foreign land where she did not understand the language, how frightened and frightened she must be?

Xu Yan stood in front of the window for a long time, and then he picked up Zhu Youxiang's last gift to himself - Zhu Youxiang's portable bracelet, and looked at it carefully.

The use of the storage bracelet was even simpler than Xu Yan expected, and Xu Yan understood it after a little fumbling - from the outside, the bracelet was just an ordinary jade bracelet, but after Xu Yan infused the bracelet with spiritual energy, immediately, a wonderful thing happened.

Xu Yan felt that in the middle of the bracelet, there was a large space, that space was about three meters square, and there were some things suspended in the space, Xu Yan looked at the past, and he saw all kinds of bottles, some strangely shaped jade, and many books - Zhu Youxiang's spring cicada sword, which was also placed in it by Xu Yan.

Seeing those bottles and strange jade objects, Xu Yan was a little curious: This is probably the elixir and various magic weapons that Zhu Youxiang carried with him, right? Xu Yan was a little curious about those elixirs and magic weapons, but he still didn't touch them -- he told himself in his heart that this was Xuan Yun's thing, and he was just keeping it for the time being. I don't know what taboos these magic weapons and elixirs are, if I move them casually, if they are broken, Xuan Yun will come back in the future, and it will be difficult for me to explain to Xuan Yun.

However, for those books, Xu Yan was not polite, and took them out directly from the storage bracelet - the books were just books, and even if he read them, there would be no damage.

Xu Yan picked up the book and glanced at it a few times, most of them were the mental methods of practicing martial arts, Xu Yan took a cursory look, and there were "White Deer Heart Method", "Easy Imperial Qi Tour", "Yin and Yang Xuanqing Dao", "Xuantian Demon True Method", "Seven Tribulations Dragon Cutting Method", "Divine Sword Cutting True Method", "Nine Zhu Sword", "Jiuyang Thunder Sword Method", "Yin Yang Sword Destroying Sword Method", "Heaven Splitting Sword Method" - Xu Yan noticed that most of these cultivation exercises are sword cultivation exercises, and it seems that Zhu Youxiang claims to be mainly sword cultivation, which is true.

Since it was Zhu Youxiang who carried it with him, these cultivation exercises should be very precious true inheritance exercises in the Ming world, and they should be priceless treasures on the earth, treasures that countless cultivators have dreamed of. It's just that Xu Yan was in a depressed mood, no matter how precious the exercises were, he was not in the mood to study them, he just glanced at these precious exercises casually and threw them aside.

However, there was a book that had nothing to do with cultivation that attracted Xu Yan's attention, and the name of this book was "The Chronicle of the Lanxi Imperial Demon in Ding Younian" - Xu Yan flipped through it, and the words in it were all in classical Chinese. Fortunately, the text is not too difficult and easy to understand.

The author of this book was a disciple of Bailu Academy named Zhang Qingru. He recorded his own personal experiences in the battle against natural disasters. According to Zhu Youxiang, Xu Yan is already a registered disciple of Bailu Academy. Then, this Mr. Zhang Qingru can be regarded as Xu Yan's senior brother.

According to the preface and inscription before the text, Xu Yan knew that this senior brother Zhang Qingru successively served as the commander of Lanxi County in Jinhua in eastern Zhejiang, the Tongzhi of Jinhua Mansion in eastern Zhejiang, and the prefect of Jinhua Mansion in eastern Zhejiang. Judging from his promotion route, this old man can be called an official fortune, but the main thing in this book is not his officialdom experience, but the experience and experience of this senior brother of White Deer Academy in the Demon War-according to the earth. This should be a literary work that combines reportage, non-fiction and memoirs, and the greatest value of this work lies not in its literary nature, but in its documentary nature.

According to the preface of the book, although Zhang Qingru is a civil official, he is a Confucian general with both civil and military skills - this is not surprising, the students trained by Bailu Academy are both civil and military, and even more important in practice than literature.

When Zhang Qingru's senior brother served as the commander of Lanxi County, it happened that a large-scale natural disaster occurred in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Known as "Ding Youtian Change" in history, Zhang Qingru, as the county commander, led hundreds of guards in the county and thousands of officials and Ding Zhuang to resist the demons that came like a tide, and held the city for three months. In the end, the army was defeated and the city was broken, and he had to lead his subordinates to continue to fight and break through.

Zhang Qingru relied on his extraordinary courage and skills, coupled with the unity of the army and the people. There is also a bit of luck, in the heart of the demonic plague. Zhang Xianling led thousands of subordinates and tens of thousands of people to fight for three months, and finally was able to break through. until they reached a rendezvous with the reinforcements of the imperial court.

Later, Zhang County's heroic deeds of guarding the people were played in the imperial court, and he was rewarded by the imperial court's general order, and soon the officials issued an order, because the prefect and Tongzhi of Jinhua Mansion were killed in a natural disaster, and he was specially ordered to control the government as a Tongzhi and command the war against demons among the military and civilians of the whole government. This "Chronicle of the Lanxi Imperial Demon in Ding Younian" tells the story of this Zhang County Commander leading his subordinates (refugees) to fight in various places, and because it is written in the first person in chronological order, it looks a bit like a diary.

In the preface of the book, the Lin sacrifice wine of Bailu Academy specially pointed out that the story of Zhang Qingru's senior brother leading the Zhedong Guards to resist natural disasters is indeed thrilling, but the greatest value of this book is that Zhang Qingru described in detail the various demon creatures he had encountered and heard, and the record was very detailed and vivid.

The text of this book is written in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, Xu Yan regarded it as a magical novel such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, but he also read it with relish, he stayed up all night, and read the book like this all night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, accompanied by the consulate, Xu Yan went through the visa and boarding procedures smoothly, and flew directly from Vladivostok to Beijing. The trip went smoothly, the plane took off at Vladivostok at one o'clock, and landed at Beijing International Airport at three o'clock.

Xu Yan got off the plane and walked leisurely towards the exit with his luggage.

After returning to his homeland, listening to pleasant Mandarin instead of those harsh and noisy Japanese, Xu Yan suddenly felt a lot more relaxed, and his steps were a lot brisker.

At the exit of the airport, Xu Yan saw the people who picked him up - the people who came to pick him up were several men in civilian clothes who he didn't know, they were dressed in civilian clothes, with very energetic short haircuts, and there was a fierce momentum in their expressions.

Before Xu Yan walked to the exit of the station, the other party had already discovered him, and someone greeted him quickly, and a short-haired young man greeted him very politely: "Excuse me, is it Lieutenant Colonel Xu?"

Xu Yan guessed that most of these people were sent by Wen Xiuzhi to pick him up. Xu Yan was a little strange, among so many people who picked up the airport, there was no one he knew - even if Wen Xiuzhi was too busy to come in person, but acquaintances such as Director Gao and Xiaobao should also come to one, right?

Xu Yan replied politely: "It's me, may I ask you?"

The answer was another middle-aged man who was a little older, and he replied calmly and indifferently: "We are from the political department of the ministry, and my surname is Liu-" At this time, the young man who spoke earlier introduced in a timely manner: "This is our Director Liu." ”

At this time, Xu Yan was still ignorant, and he said politely: "Director Liu, hello, please come to pick up the plane in person, how can you afford it." ”

A faint smile appeared on Director Liu's lips, but it quickly disappeared. He bowed his head and said, "It's nothing, Lieutenant Colonel Xu has come back from a business trip to Japan, and this trip has been hard - oh, this is my ID, Lieutenant Colonel, please take a look." ”

As he spoke, Director Liu took out a military ID card from his pocket and handed it over, Xu Yan thought that he was worthy of being an officer of the Political Department, and he really did things at a glance, and he had to take a certificate to prove his identity when he connected to the machine.

"Director Liu, you're too polite, there's no need to look at it. ”

"No, no, no, it's a must-see – it's the procedure. ”

The other party was too serious, Xu Yan couldn't shirk it, so he had to look at it, he took Director Liu's certificate and glanced at it hastily, so he knew that the other party's name was Liu Shanming, with the rank of colonel, and he was the deputy director of the Political Department of the Ministry of Intelligence-Xu Yan looked at it, handed it back to Director Liu, and said with a smile: "Director Liu, you are too polite." You are here in person, how can you believe it, and what documents do you have to see? ”

Director Liu smiled faintly: "Lieutenant Colonel Xu, you have had a hard time coming back from Japan, we have prepared a place for you to live, please come with us - the car is already waiting outside the airport." ”

Xu Yan didn't have a fixed residence in the capital, and when he heard that the other party had arranged a place to live for himself, he didn't think much about it - when he first arrived in the capital, Wen Xiuzhi also arranged a place to live for himself. He thanked him politely and said, "Trouble Director Liu, in fact, you are the leaders, and you are so busy with affairs, you don't need to come here in person." ”

Director Liu smiled faintly: "It's nothing, it's all work." When Director Liu smiled, Xu Yan could feel that he was smiling very coldly and indifferently, without much sincerity.

The officers of the Ministry of Intelligence, Xu Yan also knows a lot, whether it is Wen Xiuzhi, Director Gao, or Huang Xi, Xu Yan feels that when he gets along with them, he can feel the joys, sorrows, and sorrows of the other party, and he can know that the other party is indeed a living person. But this Director Liu, although he is polite and thoughtful, and his attitude is polite, he just gives people a cold feeling, as if he deliberately uses this thoughtful politeness to keep a distance from Xu Yan. (To be continued......)