Yelu Tilie pulled the reins and looked over, a high mountain in front of him was connected from east to west, yellow clouds and white grass, inexhaustible, and when he arrived here, he felt a little emotional and a little excited in his heart, because Shangjing was behind this mountain, and he finally came back alive.

He didn't care about the life and death along the way, as well as the fatigue of traveling and traveling, thinking about the huge treasures that had been snatched back from Juchong Pass, and the grain and cloth had now filled the originally barren warehouses in his palace, he felt that everything was worth it.

I walked on the long grassland for thirteen or fourteen days, passed through the black elm forest full of fallen leaves, stepped on the endless prairie, and flowed through the Huangshui, Heishui, and Xiangxiang River. Everywhere you pass are sparsely populated barren mountains and mountains.

Seeing that he could return to Shangjing after turning over the mountains in front of him, Yelu Tilie's heart began to feel a little anxious, on the one hand, because he was inevitably excited to see his mother who had been absent for a long time soon. On the other hand, so far, Zhong Ziyuan has not shown the slightest sign of softening. I'm afraid that after entering Shangjing, even he won't be able to keep her well-thought.

Although her identity is somewhat special, it may be of some use to him. The Kunbu who was poisoned by her was the grandson of Xiao Siyuan, the king of the North Courtyard, and the other few who were indirectly poisoned, although their identities were not as noble as Kunbu, their families also had a lot of power in Shangjing. Before Zhong Ziyuan entered the city, he had made countless enemies for himself, and this murderous disaster could not be avoided no matter how he looked at it.

But it was useless for Jeruthereth to be anxious, because he knew that his every move, word and deed could not escape the eyes of these subordinates around him. If you want to show favoritism to Zhong Ziyuan, I am afraid that it will chill the hearts of these subordinates.

No matter how complicated Jerodreeth's mind was. After crossing the mountains, Shangjing still appeared in front of their eyes. The subordinates who had followed him through hardships began to roar and gallop with excitement, and even Gemei breathed a sigh of relief. Coquettishly smiled: "Khan, we can be regarded as going to Beijing." ”

"Yes, let's go to Beijing." In the dark and deep eyes of Jeroderi, there was a strange light that Gemei couldn't understand.

At this time, Shangjing was still just showing the rudimentary shape of a city, full of houses made of yellow mud and wood, interspersed with tents of various colors and sizes. Although it is a mash-up style. But it also mixes and matches its unique personality.

The closer you get to Shangjing, the denser the population becomes, and in addition to the Khitans, you can also see many people wearing other ethnic costumes. Like the Qiang people. Uighurs, Jurchens, etc., but the most of them are Han Chinese.

Zhong Ziyuan had been locked up alone in this dark carriage for ten days, and she had been completely talking to herself for ten days. Entertain yourself to pass the long and lonely days. Over and over again, she sang the songs she could still remember in her head. Her voice slowly became hoarse from the initial brightness, and finally even to the point where her vocal cords trembled, as if they were torn, and the sound she made was faintly smelly of iron embroidery.

Suddenly, she closed her mouth, her eyes widened stupidly, and she listened carefully. Because outside, in addition to the dull sound of horses' hooves and wheels, there are also the excited howls of those Khitans. She actually heard noisy voices and chaotic shouts. There were also all kinds of neighing of horses and sheep, and a pungent smell of horse manure wafted in through the heavy curtains. Her heart trembled, did she finally arrive in Beijing? A tragic emotion suddenly rose inexplicably in her heart.

Yelu Tilie went out of Beijing secretly, and naturally he couldn't make a noise when he came back, so he hid his identity and quietly returned to the palace with everyone. Of course, Zhong Ziyuan didn't have a chance to appear in front of the public, she was sent directly to prison without even getting off the carriage.

Zhong Ziyuan was brought in blindfolded, and the jailer who escorted her didn't say a word, and left straight after throwing her into the cell. She fumbled herself to remove her blindfold and found herself in a solitary cell. And the cell looked quite tidy, with a bed covered with brocade quilts, clean toilets, and even women's things like screens, bathtubs, and bronze mirrors.

Zhong Ziyuan moved his sore wrist while looking around curiously, and at the same time, he secretly guessed in his heart what Yelu Tilie would do with himself next. Unfortunately, she soon found that she seemed to be forgotten again.

One day, two days, three days, until she couldn't remember how much time had passed, and the silence in the cell seemed so quiet that she could hear the beetle burrowing out of the ground. No one spoke to her, and she couldn't hear a single sound. Every day, a hunchbacked, numb-faced woman would come and bring her food and hot water for washing. Those meals are very good and clean, and they are still the stir-fried dishes that the Central Plains people love to eat, and sometimes there are one or two pastries. Although it is not as delicate and delicious as Yipinzhai, it can be regarded as an unexpected surprise.

In order to pass the time, she ate every bite very carefully, chewing all the food slowly, and she could eat a meal for an hour.

The old woman would also bring her a set of clean clothes every other day, and then take away the dirty clothes she had changed. There is nothing to say about the workmanship or material of those clothes, first it was fur, then satin, and recently it was juan yarn. It is estimated that the ladies of the noble families of the palace usually wear this way. Zhong Ziyuan often thinks that he is only missing two wings, and he is a canary worthy of the name of being kept in a birdcage.

At first, Zhong Ziyuan tried to talk to the old woman who delivered the food, but no matter what she said, the old woman didn't react at all, just silently doing her own thing. Over time, Zhong Ziyuan had to give up.

Although daily life is not harsh, Zhong Ziyuan is very lonely. In order to pass the long time, in addition to singing to herself, she would crush the pastries and scatter them in the corner, and then squat there and watch the ants move the crumbs away little by little. She often squatted like this for most of the day.

There was also a delicate vermilion lacquered lattice window in the cell, but unfortunately it had been nailed all down, and only the highest wooden plank seemed to rot, and only a hole in the top part of the prison seemed to rot, revealing a gap the size of a bronze mirror. She needed to stand on her tiptoes to see out the window.

It's a pity that outside the window is an equally quiet deserted yard. She had never seen a single figure, except for the occasional glimpse of a few grey voles burrowing into the ground, or a few birds bouncing in the grass foraging for food.

But she still looked out with pleasure. Even if you can only see those voles happily burrowing and building nests, it is good. Sometimes she would pinch some crumbs of snack in the palm of her hand, and then try to reach outside, waiting for the birds to come and peck at her.

Whenever a bird discovers the delicacy in her palm and flies over to peck happily, she will have an inexplicable urge to cry.

Through that small gap, she could see that the courtyard outside was gradually changing from a barren yellow barren area to a grass warbler flying, and she often had an illusion. She felt that all this was a nightmare in front of her, and maybe the next moment, she would wake up from this long and terrible nightmare.

this day. She pinched some more stump in the palm of her hand, and then stretched out to tease the birds to come and feed, and she felt the sun shine on her palms and burn extraordinarily. It turned out that it was already summer, and the thought had just flashed through her numb and drowsy head. I felt like my wrist was suddenly grabbed from the outside.

Zhong Ziyuan trembled with fright. Hurriedly stepped on his feet and looked out. A young, energetic face appeared outside. He peered through the gap into the dimly lit room, and asked curiously, "Who are you?" ”

What suddenly appeared outside was a young man in a fancy costume. He was tall and good-looking, but slightly immature, and he should not be more than fourteen years old. He has dark skin, a muscular figure, and a pair of black and white eyes that are exceptionally bright. The young man had a typical Han face, but he was wearing a left-sided round-necked robe that the Khitans liked. The waist is tied with a silver-gilt wavy pattern.

In the past few months, Zhong Ziyuan has been except for the old woman who didn't say a word. I have never seen a second person, the appearance of this young man in Chinese clothes, especially when he is still speaking in the Central Plains, makes her feel extremely excited. She "ahh

The young man frowned, and once again patiently asked, "Who are you?" Why is it in the cold palace? ”

Cold Palace? Zhong Ziyuan was shocked, she always thought that she was in prison, but she didn't expect it to be a cold palace. She hurriedly cleared her throat and said word by word: "Mud (you) - time (is) - water (who)?" ”

She hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time, her tongue had hardened, and it was extremely difficult to say just three words.

"What mud and water? What nonsense are you talking about. The boy's eyes widened in fright.

Zhong Ziyuan had to be patient, and slowly repeated it word by word.

"I can't even speak clearly, no wonder everyone outside says that there is a crazy woman locked up here." The boy muttered. Zhong Ziyuan was stunned for a moment, and then smiled bitterly, it turned out that she had been labeled as a crazy woman.

The young man said proudly: "The current Khan Yelu Tereh is my own uncle, and I am the only son of the king of the Southern Courtyard. ”

"Jeroder?" Zhong Ziyuan looked at the young man carefully, but inexplicably felt a little familiar, he seemed to have seen this person somewhere. But she had never left Chang'an City before, how could she possibly know a Khitan prince who was far away in Shangjing. So she subconsciously put this familiar feeling behind her, thinking that she might have been closed for a long time, so everyone felt extra familiar and cordial.

"By the way, what are you doing with all that dim sum in your hands?" Yelu Tuo'er was a teenager in the end, and he quickly forgot to continue to ask Zhong Ziyuan's identity, and instead asked curiously about other things.

Zhong Ziyuan didn't know how to introduce her identity, so she just diverted from the topic, so she smiled: "I'm attracting those birds to come to forage." After talking a little more, the base of her stiff tongue slowly softened.

"What's so fun with the birds, look at me." A malicious smile appeared on Jerod's face. He patted the dregs from her palms, then took out a few bloodshot strips of flesh from his arms and placed them in her palms. Zhong Ziyuan was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "What are you doing?" She twisted her wrist to withdraw her hand.

Although Jerodor was a young man, he was strong and strong. He grabbed Zhong Ziyuan's wrist tightly to prevent her from breaking free, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I'll show you something that's more fun than a bird." He looked up at the blue sky, then pursed his lips and let out a shrill whistle.

Zhong Ziyuan couldn't help but raise his head in horror and looked at the sky with his gaze. In the distance, she saw a black dot rapidly approaching this way, the summer sun was always particularly dazzling, and she couldn't help but half-squint her eyes.

The black shadow was extremely fast, its huge wings spread like the wings of a glider, and it was getting closer and closer, and she could already make out its dark and shiny feathers, its jade claws as hard as iron hooks.

Zhong Ziyuan's eyes opened suddenly, and he exclaimed, "Hai Dongqing! She couldn't help but secretly cry in her heart, this stinky kid wouldn't want to use her hands as a scaffold for falconry!

Hai Dongqing is the most ferocious bird, looking at its jade claws like iron hooks, just a light scratch, even a branch will remove a layer of rough skin, not to mention its own flesh and blood, it is afraid that the skin and flesh will be light if it is lightly scratched.

Just when Zhong Ziyuan was frightened, Hai Dongqing, who was soaring in the sky, seemed to have found its prey, and it suddenly screamed and swooped down like a dart. "Stinky boy, let go." Zhong Ziyuan couldn't help but scream in horror.

"Crazy woman, no." Jerod's face was full of schadenfreude.

Zhong Ziyuan was almost crying without tears, she found that no matter what dynasty it was in, the pranks of thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys were indigestible. Hai Dongqing was getting closer and closer, she could almost see its cold and lonely eyes, she screamed, closed her eyes tightly, and waited helplessly for the severe pain to come.

The palm of his hand was slightly cold, and Zhong Ziyuan felt that those strips of meat seemed to be taken away, but the expected pain did not appear. She hurriedly opened her eyes and looked out curiously, and saw that Hai Dongqing had gathered its wings and was standing quietly on Yelu'er's shoulder, and there were a few pink strips of meat hanging from the side of its hard eagle beak, which were swallowing in little by little.

"Look at your stupidity, you're scared! Isn't it much more fun than birds? Jerodor let out a grotesque maniacal laugh, and the voice of the duck that had just changed his voice made his scalp tingle. After laughing, he proudly showed off: "Tell you, my Haidongqing has been raised for more than a year, and it can understand my whistle, know when to attack, when to prey, and when to rein in its claws." ”

Zhong Ziyuan withdrew his hand stupidly, turned around and sat back on the bed. Yelut hurriedly shouted through the crack, "Hey, crazy woman, you can't be angry, are you? ”

At this moment, Zhong Ziyuan felt that she was stupid, and she said angrily: "Of course the crazy woman has the right to be angry. ”

"Don't be angry, I order you to come and play with me." Jerodel commanded haughtily.

Zhong Ziyuan hurriedly got into the bed, took a thin blanket and covered himself from head to toe, and said angrily: "I'm sorry, the crazy woman wants to sleep, so I won't accompany you." Although she was lonely to the point of going crazy, she had no interest in playing with a big boy who was full of pranks and used a bird of prey like Hai Dongqing as a toy. I'm afraid that if I can't play well, I'll have to put an arm into it.

"It's boring." Fortunately, Jerodor didn't force it, and left with a muttered dissatisfaction. (To be continued.) )