In early summer, according to the hour, although the twilight has arrived, the sky is still bright. Huaiyang City is quietly shrouded in a color that is getting thicker and thicker than white, the crowd in the market has long since dispersed, the long street is empty, and occasionally a few people are walking, either going to their own houses, or going to the fireworks and willow alleys to find fun.

The soldiers on duty at the city gate checked the passers-by for most of the day, and at this time the number of people entering and leaving the city gate was gradually decreasing, and it was the moment of fatigue and abdominal muscles, and gradually became idle, leaning on the wall gate and talking to a few idle men along the city wall.

At this time, a sharp-eyed person pointed to the distance and exhaled: "Green Tent Carriage!" At this time, it is the time to go out of her mother's house, which little lady wants to marry far away, and go out of the city at this time? There was still some distance between the city gates, and there were already seven or eight beggars gathered around the car, clapping their palms and singing and dancing.

As they got closer and closer to the city gate, the idlers at the base of the city wall left the soldiers who were chatting and rushed up, only around the car to ask for a reward. The bridegroom in Zhu Yi, who was riding a horse and walking at the head, took out a large handful of five baht coins from his arms, and sprinkled them out, taking advantage of the robbery of the obstacle, the chariot hurried forward a few steps, and when the money on the ground was picked up, a group of people gathered around again, singing and chanting ballads.

It was easy to get to the gate of the city, and the soldiers on duty came up to inspect, and the groom took out a piece of money from his bosom and handed it over, "Please drink and eat and dip some joy in the messengers." ”

The soldier took the money, first congratulated with a smile, and then said embarrassedly: "It is said that outsiders in the green tent car that picked up the bride can't move, but there have been many things in the city recently, and the top is very tightly tied. Ah Lang gave me a face, so I didn't examine it carefully, but just lifted the curtain and taught me to take a look, and it was done after a scene. ”

The bridegroom hesitated for a moment, and the soldier accepted a lot of money from him, carefully gathered his official tone, and patiently urged again, "There is no intention of being frivolous, and the strict orders from above are difficult to disobey, so you and I will do our own convenience." The bridegroom turned back and nodded to the coachman.

The driver of the car stretched out his hand to lift the curtain behind him, and suddenly the beggars and idlers gathered around the car rushed forward in a hurry, making a gesture to look into the car to see the appearance of the bride, and the bride in the car screamed in horror in a low voice. The soldier shouted a loud reprimand, dismissed the bradwagons who were about to move, and apologized to the bridegroom.

The groom looked at the group of people who were blocking the car, and his face became impatient, "Please hurry up, and hurry up." The soldier hurriedly stepped forward to visit inside, only to see a handsome woman sitting in the car with a little anxiety, the hairpin ring was not luxurious, but the face was like a pear, and the eyebrows were delicate. After scanning the inside of the car at the moment, there was nothing unusual, and he waved his hand to signal the coachman to lower the curtain and step back.

Just as he was about to invite them to cross the city gate, when he walked past the coachman, the soldier suddenly tilted his head to look at the coachman's face, and became suspicious. He put one hand on the coachman's shoulder, the other on the saber at his waist, and shouted, "Get down! Take off the hat! ”

The coachman was stunned for a moment, and then got out of the car with a wince. The soldier stretched out his hand and brushed the hat off his head, glaring at him. The groom on the horse in front of him panicked, hurriedly turned over and dismounted, "This is a servant born in my family, and nothing can go wrong." The soldier paid no attention to him, but looked the coachman up and down carefully.

After looking at it for a while, he didn't see anything unusual, so he put the driver's shoulder and waved his hand, "Okay, let's go." The coachman did not dare to wear the hat anymore, and hurriedly jumped on the wheels and grasped the whip. After this commotion, the people who blocked the car all stood in place, and one of them suddenly woke up and shouted, "Please Ah Lang." ”

Everyone wanted to come forward again to make a fuss, but the soldier waved his hand impatiently to drive away, "Go, go, what's the trouble, don't delay the people's journey." "Stopped them for a moment.

The bridegroom glanced back, frowned, and took out more five baht coins from his bosom and threw them out, and said to the soldier: "Don't stop the husband, the bride and son are married far away, and there should be a neighbor who is busy and sent out of the city, so everyone will appreciate this face." After saying that, there was another handful of money, and the people who were blocking the car rushed forward one after another, regardless of the soldiers' obstruction, and grabbed the coins on the ground.

The green horde cart traveled all the way, and the coins were sprinkled all the way until it was a hundred paces away from the city gate. A group of beggars and idlers held the money and walked back to the city gate happily, just as the soldiers guarding the city dismantled the money and counted the two who were on duty. Ren didn't care about anyone, there were a total of 16 people who blocked the car, but when they came back, there were only 15 left.

The green tent and the groom on horseback traveled far on the post road, suddenly turned the road, went down to the path, and walked along the path for more than half an hour, and entered a deserted village, which was out of the Huaiyang boundary at this time.

The car stopped in front of an abandoned wild temple, and a ragged beggar peeked out of the car, and he jumped out of the car, tearing off his tattered linen shirt several times, revealing a clean plain robe. The coachman also got out of the car and stretched out his hand to the car, and the bride in the car quickly took off the blue wedding dress on the cover, took off the hairpin on her bun, tore off Huasheng on her forehead, and stuffed it into her arms. Reaching out and grabbing the big hand that had reached into the car, the big hand held her waist and took her out of the car, half-hugging and half-supporting.

The man who had just taken off his beggar's attire bowed to her, "Li Mi, thank you for your help." He turned to Du Ruhui, who was pretending to be a coachman, and thanked him again.

The surroundings were desolate and cloudy, Mu Qing had no intention of being polite to him, and hurriedly returned the salute, standing beside Du Ruhui, not daring to move at will. He Suizhao had already jumped off his horse, took off the groom's red clothes, walked around the wild temple with a fire, and came back and said to them: "In this situation, it is not advisable to rush at night, so let's get together in this small temple for the time being, and when it is dawn tomorrow, I will go forward to find a market, and buy a horse to hurry." ”

It is not the first time that Mu Qing has stayed in the wilderness overnight, in the early spring of last year, when he went to Wuwei County, he didn't know how many times he slept in the open along the way. Du Ruhui asked in a deep voice, "Is it safe to be around?" ”

I heard He Suizhao sneer and ridicule, "The surrounding barren fields, the back of the small temple is next to a large cemetery, there is no living mouth, and it is safe." ”

Hearing this, Mu Qing felt a chill all over her body, she had also stayed alone in the deserted cemetery for half the night on the rainy night of Qixi Festival, and the taste made people shiver through the bones. She involuntarily moved closer to Du Ruhui and reached out to grab the hem of his robe. Du Ruhui noticed the slight tug at the hem of her robe, knowing that she was afraid, and she didn't pay attention to etiquette in front of outsiders, so she grabbed her waist and snuggled closely. It was dark and moonless, and no one noticed He Suizhao's lonely glance.

This wild temple looks like a family temple, and there are many wooden tablets on the altar in it. He Suizhao went to collect the beggar's coarse linen rags, the groom's red clothes, and the bride's green shirt, and pushed them to Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui spread all these clothes on the straw pile, hugged Mu Qing to sit on it, sat next to her on the bare straw without a bedding, leaned against a wall, hugged her in his arms, and whispered: "Don't be afraid, and sleep in peace, I will protect you." ”

In the gloomy and sparse village and deserted temple, I listened to the "cooing" cry of the owl Sen Sen all night, and the graveyard next to the small temple did not know what to hear, and it sounded particularly frightening at night. Fortunately, he was beside him, and the aura of his body had always been the best comfort to her, and though he was afraid, his arms were a solid wall that kept her out of the world, and kept her in the thick of it, and did not disturb her with horror and fear.

Nothing was said all night. At dawn the next day, the four of them were awake and had to continue on their way. I thought of going to the market to buy horses, but there was no one in the village, and when I walked through the village, there were only a few old men digging wild vegetables on the side of the road in the fields, and when I asked them questions, I would only look at the people in a daze, as if they did not know the language of people, and there was nowhere to find the horses.

It was easy for someone to know about the matter, and after inquiring, the men in the village had been conscripted for military service in the past few years and went to Liaodong to attack Goguryeo.

After traveling dozens of miles away, I saw a horse, the horses were unsatisfactory, and I could barely ride them, so I bought two horses, together with the two horses when I went out of the city, just one person and one horse. He Suizhao led Li Mi to detour to Honghua County to avoid trouble, and Du Ruhui and Mu Qing went straight to Wu County. The four of them resigned before they left and parted ways.

Before leaving, He Suizhao couldn't help but linger her eyes, Mu Qing's mind suddenly floated with the appearance of a concubine, I wanted to talk to him about the righteous woman, but I felt that this matter had nothing to do with me, why bother to say this more, so as not to involve it in the future, so when the words came to his mouth, he only moved his lips, and replaced it with a crisp and neat goodbye.

Mu Qing was eager to return to his hometown, and he didn't want to rest all the way, so he changed horses again on the way, and entered the boundary of Wu County in a few days. She clearly remembered that when she fled from Wu County in the past, this place was still rich and rich, and the mountains and rivers were beautiful.

When I stepped into Guangfu Town, it was the time when the sun was waning, and the twilight was gently brushing on the ridge of the willow tops, with a layer of water color, dense and gentle. "It's been a few years since I've seen the twilight in the south of the Yangtze River, everything has changed, but this style is constant." Du Ruhui sighed.

"This reminds me of the twilight in the west," Mu Qing said with a smile, "It's the same sunset, but it's completely different." The rammed walls of the loess, the low-whirling wind and sand, and everything are lined with orange light, simple and strong. The mountains in the distance are extremely high, and the veins are connected, as if the sky is separated at a glance, the top is blue and black, and the bottom is red and yellow. ”

With a smile on his lips, he listened carefully to her describing the scenery thousands of miles away, "It's a pity to enjoy such a good scenery alone." I will definitely go and see it together in the future. ”

She nodded vigorously, "There are many good scenes, as well as the sand and red willows in the autumn, the vast grassland under the Yin Mountain, and the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty. ”

The two talked and laughed, and then walked to the door of an inn.