The carriage was bumpy on the mountain road, and the rough road was about to shake the bones of the people in the carriage apart. I lifted the curtain to look, and it was already night outside, and there was a hazy mountain fog, shrouding the entire lonely and uninhabited deep mountain, revealing the ghostly atmosphere of the forest.

"Climb over this mountain tonight, once you pass the Jianmen Pass, you will be able to reach Yizhou tomorrow. Helan sat down opposite me and said quietly, "Xiao Chongyan actually sent a shadow man to search, it seems that the emperor has been escorted to Yizhou by Yuwen Qiye. This Jinwu general, the means are really high!"

"This is the realm of the Southern Yunnan Jiedu Envoy, and no matter how ambitious the Xiao family is, the Son of Heaven will not let the Son of Heaven have an accident here. It seems that Prince Helan has something to do with the Xiao family? This time, it depends on whether the Xiao family will kill their relatives in righteousness. I spoke, looking out the window, and noticed that Helan was stiff.

Helan looked through the mask with a cold gaze, stared at the Pixiu wrench in my hand, and said with a strange smile for a while: "Interesting." ”

I have always been worried in my heart, and the night is falling, always as if to herald the coming storm. Xingnu leaned closer to me, looking at me as if I wanted to say something, but I couldn't speak, I stretched out my hand and patted his back, my heart was both moved and worried about his appearance, remembering that Manguyi innocently died because of me, my eyes suddenly became a little sour.

Arriving in Yizhou tomorrow, Helan Lin wants to take me hostage, whether his spearhead is aimed at the Heavenly Family or the Xiao family, who has already torn his face? I don't know anything.

My inner thoughts turned a thousand times, although I didn't want to be controlled by others but I couldn't find a way to solve it, I suddenly regretted that when the star slave came to save me, I took the initiative to fall into the tiger's mouth, I just hope that God will see that I still have a little compassion, so that the people around me will no longer be hurt by me.

The carriage suddenly stopped on the way, and I was subconsciously nervous, only to hear the thin monkey outside the carriage say: "Lord, there is an inn in front of you, and it is almost time for the sword gate to close, do you want to rest your feet first? ”

It turned out that he was nervous. Helan sank silently in the darkness of the carriage, and her amber pupils looked at the small inn not far away, two dilapidated red lanterns hanging from the gate, glowing faintly.

After a long time, Helan nodded silently: "Then go and rest for a while." ”

Late at night, the little house in the inn had already rested, and when we entered, the shopkeeper was holding an abacus and beeping against the account, which was especially loud in the entire empty hall.

The big man put a piece of gold on the table, "Boss, take this horse to feed some food, and serve two pots of good wine." ”

"This ...... Guest, we are already closed, and the accommodation may not work. But......" The shopkeeper looked at Jin Xuzi's eyes straight, "It's okay to hit the point." So saying, he took the golden bare.

Helan sat on the table beside him, looking at the surroundings.

I stood aside with Xingnu, looked at the grease on the table and chairs, and asked the shopkeeper euphemistically, "Can you find a slightly cleaner place for me?"

The shopkeeper was stunned, and for the sake of money, he said to me flatteringly: "This girl is a lady of the official family at first glance, if there is Yaxing, it is better to go to the backyard." In the past, my son liked to play chess, so he had a remote pavilion there, and the peach blossoms had just bloomed in the past two days, so he could go there to have a look. ”

As soon as I heard this, I was a little interested, and pulled the star slave to the backyard.

Late at night in early spring, the cold is accompanied by the mountain breeze, but the peach blossoms of a tree in the backyard are blooming brilliantly. In early spring, peach blossoms, pink petals, and clouds are steaming, and they are spread out in the inky night.

I think of the peach blossom-like smoke of the Danlu Garden, and I think of the Yuwen Chuyang who said goodbye to me in the spring rainy night. The 200,000 Shence army buried in the desert is all related to the Xiao family and the person next to me.

"After arriving in Yizhou tomorrow, what will Prince Helan prepare?" In the long pavilion, Helan and I sat opposite each other on the chess table, and the Xingnu and the thin monkey went to feed the horses. Outside the court, peach blossoms fluttered, and the crescent moon was shrouded in a layer of hazy light by the mountain mist.

Helan filled the wine glass in front of her and unveiled her mask with one hand. He raised his eyebrows and glanced at me with a shocked expression, and drank the sake from his glass.

His face seems to have undergone stone carvings weathered by thousands of years of yellow sand, deep and resolute. With the tough lines characteristic of the Hu people. A pair of eyes are like amber deposited on the top of Kunlun Mountain, filled with ice and snow that have never melted for eternity, and the gaze bursting out is sharp and cold.

A scarlet scar on Helan Lone's left cheek stretched from the eyebrow bone to the high cheekbone, looking fierce and terrifying.

"I won't kill you, when I take back my things from Xiao Chongyan, you can continue to be your general's wife. ”

I wondered, "Why, aren't you afraid that I'll kill you one day?"

Helan stared at me for a long time, and then raised the corners of her lips and smiled: "So powerful, worthy of being her daughter." ”

My nerves tensed again, and Chi Sheng's staccato words before his death echoed in my ears, allowing me to connect the two for no reason.

"My queen mother has been dead for many years, how does the prince know how powerful Empress Xiaowen is?"

Helan smiled meaninglessly: "Empress Xiaowen, I haven't heard of this person, I only know a woman named Ah Yan." ”

Ah Rou ...... The name haunted me like a nightmare, and today it came out of Helan Lone's mouth. I didn't know why I suddenly cowered and didn't dare to listen to him.

Helan Lin took out the portrait depicted by Chi Sheng, and there was a bit of tenderness in his eyes.

"Tonight is the last time you and I will be together, and after tomorrow we will be enemies. While I'm in a good mood right now, I'll tell you a story. ”

"The old Turkic khan originally had a Han princess who was very much in love, and the princess died in childbirth after giving birth to a prince. The old khan supported the prince as the crown prince regardless of the opinions of the ministers, and did not appoint a princess for more than ten years, until the year when the current emperor of the Central Plains ascended the throne. ”

Helan was stunned suddenly, his gaze seemed to be in a more distant direction, and the scar on the left side of his face seemed to sting his memory, which inexplicably made me feel that this murderous but real face had more poignant tenderness than the Shura mask.

"The eldest princess of Chengyang and the pro-Turks, the royal city celebrates for three days. This princess from the original became my titular mother. On the night of my father's Khan's wedding, my brother Zangcuo took advantage of my drunkenness to try to harm me, and this scar was originally intended to pierce my temple. ”

The royal power has changed, and brothers have killed each other, such as Lang Taosha. Every child living within the walls of the palace wears a mask that seems to be smiling but not smiling. Perhaps only in the face of parting and life and death can the disguise be removed. But how many people will be afraid of the ugly and real face under this mask?

"That night, I ruined my father's Khan's wedding and killed Zangcuo with my backhand. I was locked up in a riot room for a whole month, and she was taking care of me. Helan Lin suddenly smiled, a peach blossom fell into my wine glass, and the chessboard carved in stone on the table was blurred.

"She was the princess of my father Khan, my stepmother, but I fell in love with her. I never called her queen mother, and she told me that her name was Ah Yan, and Chang'an was a place that made her sad, and she left her children and love there. ”

“…… Her face is a stunning one that no painter can describe. Back then, she was close to the Turks, and once wanted to go back to Chang'an to retrieve a portrait. She told me that the painting was from an old man, the person who painted her most like in the world. ”

I gritted my teeth and picked up my glass, choked hard, and asked tremblingly, "She is the woman in the portrait...... Her children...... Isn't it me?"

Helan looked at me deeply for a long time, and said, "I used to think that Allure was similar in appearance to her, and she was placed in Chang'an to get the emperor's attention. But this is not as good as her own daughter...... Are you called Yue'er?"

A gust of mountain wind blew, and the shadows of the flowers swayed. Countless peach blossom petals floated in front of me, and my eyes were crimson.

"The breath of Dongze, the sun and the moon are brilliant. That's how she often mentions you. It is not easy for her to conceive you, and the day the Bailu Palace became pregnant, you were immediately carried into the Hanyuan Palace. The queen mother in your mouth is actually carrying a dead baby. The man she loved so much finally betrayed her because of the imperial power and sent her into the desert with his own hands. ”

My pupils suddenly constricted, and my heart felt like it was being clenched by countless hands. My nineteen-year dream was shattered in an instant, and my once carefree life was easily buried in Helan Lone's words, becoming the salvation after the struggle for power in the palace.

I still have a lot of questions, but I can't ask a single one. Belief or unbelief is a thought, and I have to find the answer for myself.

I looked up at the sky, the crescent moon above my head was lonely, perhaps because the successive blows of the past few days had already numbed me. I can't tell the joy or sorrow in my heart.

After a while, I said, "After tonight, you and I will still be enemies." The children's personal feelings aside, my father is still the lord of the world. And you, don't want to touch him at all. ”