The fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Shangyuan Festival.

From the fifth day of the first month, the taste of the year began to decrease, until the fifteenth day of the first month, the taste of the year seemed to suddenly become stronger, and Changle Town also ushered in a night that was even more lively than Chinese New Year's Eve, because after the Shangyuan Festival, the entire New Year was over.

The streets are lit up with colorful lanterns, and almost the entire town comes out to see the lanterns and guess the lantern riddles, and with the noise of gongs and drums, several dragons and lions dance in the middle of the crowd.

Su Restaurant is open as usual today, and business is not good compared to normal days, because Su Restaurant is not like a food stall where you can buy snacks when you pass by, and most of the people passing by are troublesome to enter the store, and it is not like a large restaurant with a second floor, you can sit by the window and watch the scenery quietly, only a few regular customers with their families sit in the open air area at the door and wait to watch the fireworks. There are almost no customers in the lobby, and most of the guests buy hot drinks, which can be made with joy and luxury. Because it was the Lantern Festival, and knowing that there would not be too many guests, Hu went home early to make dumplings with Mrs. Su. Su Xian and Chunniang went to the street to hang out, and Uncle Hu accompanied them. Su Yan and Su Chan don't love many people, one sits in the lobby doing homework, and the other sits in the corner with his hands on his chest and hangs his head drowsy. Even Su Miao, who was usually so busy that her feet didn't touch the ground, was very idle, and seeing that there was nothing to do in the kitchen, she simply went out through the back door and sat on the broken stool placed under the wall on the right side of the alley, with her hands in the pockets of her padded jacket. The alley was narrow, and she could hold her balance with her back against the wall and hold her foot against the opposite wall, raise her head high, look at the clear night sky, and take a deep breath of the cold breath of winter.

The little fox lay on her lap and tilted its head to look at her.

A large hand slapped her indecently raised calf. Aftertaste reprimanded word by word:

"It's so unruly."

Su Miao was forced to put down her legs, she was used to being preached, and she didn't talk about it. Suspiciously asked:

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" He didn't answer the question, she had lowered her legs to get out of the way, and he walked past her, and naturally walked to her right, sat down, and put his hands in the pockets of his padded jacket again, leaning his back against the wall. Look up at the sky.

Su Miao looked at him for a while, didn't speak, and raised her head again. Look at the moon overhead.

"I didn't expect the store on the Shangyuan Festival to be so idle." After a while, he said softly.

"No way, it's neither a big restaurant nor a food stall, and the restaurants that are not big or small are the most leisurely during the New Year." There was a pause. She looked at the side of his face. smiled, "What's the matter, you're still not used to being too idle?" When I first came, I couldn't stand the rush hour, and the customers who came and went every day blackened my face. ”

"I didn't have a black face." Aftertaste looked down at her and said.

Su Miao looked at his face intently, paused, and smiled: "I really can't see it, you are also a person who can play tricks." ”

"What do you mean?" Looking at her in confusion, a little annoyed, asked.

"Nothing." She chuckled. Continue to look up at the moon, after a while. sighed lightly, "Shangyuan Festival! The year is over. People say that whenever the Chinese New Year is the most homesick, don't you feel homesick? ”

After a while, he was silent for a long time, lowered his eyes, and smiled lightly:

"I've been here for so long, and you've never asked me about my home or my home."

"Because everyone has their own reasons, I don't want to disturb the other party's heart that is trying to sort it out, even if those reasons seem trivial to outsiders, and may be experiencing the most important change for the person concerned, outsiders just need to shut up and stand aside and watch quietly."

The aftertaste was slightly stunned, as if looking at her softly lined side face in surprise, paused, couldn't help laughing, and laughed:

"That's a gentle way to put it." Leaning his back against the wall, he tilted his head and chuckled softly and asked, "Then why do you want to ask now?" ”

"I didn't ask, it's just because it's the New Year, so I suddenly feel that you are not at home, and your father and mother must feel very lonely."

"They won't." The aftertaste did not have a particularly fierce rebuttal, but it was said in a soft tone with a slight hint of sarcasm. Because the temperature was still cold, this light smile formed into white smoke in front of him, and it looked a little ethereal in the quiet night.

Su Miao didn't refute him, just smiled slightly, and said in a low voice:

"Once a person becomes a parent, even if he keeps telling himself in his heart not to let his child occupy all of his own, in the end, the child still occupies almost his entire life, and until he dies, he is still worried about the person who was born by him, and man is this kind of creature." She stroked the little fox's head, paused, and added with a smile, "But maybe the fox is the same, we just don't know." ”

When the little fox heard her name, she tilted her head and looked at her in bewilderment.

Aftertaste didn't speak, didn't look at her, just looked up at the sky, and didn't say a word.

Fireworks suddenly bloomed in the sky, gorgeous and colorful, the crowd of people who were playing on Changle Street outside the alley was in a commotion because of the sudden blooming fireworks, many people stopped to watch, cheering excitedly, Su Miao and Huiwei sat in the alley and looked at the corner of the fireworks in the sky.

At this moment, an even greater commotion sounded, diametrically opposed to the lively and joyful atmosphere of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the sound of iron-blooded, fierce, and cold horses' hooves sounded, followed by a series of uniform footsteps. The two horses galloped through the crowd, causing a great deal of panic among the playing crowd, and the screams and horrors were incessant, and many of them fell down in the process of dodging on both sides of the road, but they were fortunate to have suffered only minor injuries. Fortunately, there were only two fierce horses, and behind the two flying horses, there were three rows of heroic soldiers with long swords at their waists. Different from ordinary military officers, these people are soldiers who have experienced the battlefield, and their bodies are full of bloody slaughter and the tension of being bound by strict military regulations. Such an army should not appear in Changle Town, not only the army, but even the two sassy horses before should not be owned by Changle Town.

The appearance of such an army and such horses in Changle Town on the day of the Shangyuan Festival means that Changle Town is not only in trouble. And something big is wrong.

Looking at the army speeding through the streets, he was silent.

Su Miao's heart was also a little uneasy.

The Shangyuan Festival was spent in a hurry in the panic of the people in Changle Town, and Chun Niang and Su Xian were praying in the water temple when the army came. I didn't touch the group and was lucky not to be hurt.

As a civilian, Su Miao naturally didn't know what the strange army suddenly appeared in Changle Town that night, but soon, the matter of that night was discussed in the Su Restaurant.

"In the case of the Seven Star Gang water bandits, Lord Rui found out that the government of Qin'an Province and the Seven Star Gang colluded to make profits, and that night it was Lord Rui who sent someone to arrest Ning County. It's not just the Ning County Order, this time from the political envoy of Qin'an Province to the county order of Changle County was swept to the end. has all been imprisoned, and the imperial court is ruthless this time to completely purge Qin'an Province. Yu Xunjian sat at the counter, his face was blue and purple. He drank sullen wine with a depressed expression and said. That night, he wanted to do a little bit to stop the foreign invaders, but he was beaten by the army with the hilt of a knife, and his nose and face were swollen.

"Ning County Ling has only been in office for a long time, hasn't it been almost ten years since the Seven Star Gang arrived. Ning County Ling also has something to do with this matter? Su Miao frowned. Ask.

"Everyone in the officialdom knows that although Changle County is a fat shortage, it also has to take risks. Although Qin'an Province is a prosperous place, the officialdom here is the most complicated, and although the Ning County Order has just arrived, it has long been brought in. The imperial court has known about this for a long time, but it doesn't know why it hasn't been theorizing, and it's not easy to think of the necessary theories. Now Qin'an Province has finally waited for such a day. Not only those who are currently in office, but also the political envoys, prefects, prefectures, and counties who have been transferred elsewhere. At least in the past five years, these people are afraid that they will all be wiped out at this time. Prince Rui has always been decisive in killing, and I heard that when the emperor succeeded to the throne, the Wu'anhou family was wiped out because of the corruption case, but I am afraid that this time Lord Rui will not be soft. ”

"Will Ning Xian Ling also be killed?" Su Miao was startled and hurriedly asked, because of Ning Le's relationship, Ning County Ling had always taken good care of them, and he couldn't help but feel anxious when he heard Yu Inspector say this.

"Ning County Order should not, Ning County Order only came to Changle Town, even if it is really involved, it is not an important crime, beheading will not, but the lightest fear is to be sentenced to exile." Wang Dabao's face was also injured, he took a sip of wine, and said with grinning teeth.

Exile is to be sent to a remote area to do coolies, Su Miao frowned and pondered for a moment, and then asked:

"Would that be a sin on the family? Ning Le will also be questioned? ”

"Others don't know, Ning Xiaoguan shouldn't be, otherwise he would have taken him away that night."

"Ning County has made the criminal county government naturally unable to live anymore, so what should Ning Le do in the future?"

"Who knows, I met Ning Xiaoguan on the second day of that day, and he went to Fengzhou with his baggage, saying that he was looking for a way." Yu Inspector laughed, "Although he is also a filial piety, but in the end he is still a child, he thinks he is useful in Changle Town and useful in Fengzhou?" That kid was spoiled by his father, and he was a little bully in the county, Fengzhou is Zhili Prefecture, what way does he have, and he really thinks he is a character. The stupid boy still wants to see his father, not to mention that the prefect's yamen is not entered casually, how can the person arrested by Lord Rui be seen casually. If I were him, I would hurry back to my hometown and study hard while I still had some money in hand, and then I would say that if the county order of Ruoning County was really exiled, he would be the only one left in Changle Town, and he would not even have the money to return to his hometown, so he could only live on the streets at that time. ”

Su Miao knew that what he said was right, the son of a small county commander who did not have a hard way to do it was not even an ant in Fengzhou and in front of the people who came from Liangdu, and it was likely that he would be cheated out of his money and would not be able to see his father in the end. But he only has one relative, his father, and even if he returns to his hometown, no one will accept him, and he can't just watch his father being taken away and do nothing, even if it is a futile effort that seems futile to outsiders, as long as he thinks of him, he will try. The most difficult thing in life is to lose the trust that you have always relied on at the age of half an age, the immature mind can be healed by the years of growth, the mature mind can be healed by the reason of adults, and the half-mature heart is the most likely to be broken and collapsed in the process of being quickly matured by a big change, and since then it has fallen into the abyss and cannot extricate itself.

She sighed softly.

Aftertaste glanced at her in front of the small window, lowered his head, and continued to cook the ravioli.

In fact, as expected, early the morning of the second day when Ning Xianling was arrested, the panicked Ning Le packed up his baggage and took the little girl Qingyu to Fengzhou.

He only has this little guy, and the others were all hired by Ning County Commander during his tenure, and they no longer belonged to him the moment Ning County Commander was captured, and even when Ning County Commander was captured and the army withdrew, those people were already scattered because of panic.

He was not in the mood to pay attention to where they went, and with a worried heart, he rushed to Fengzhou with Qingyu.

He has never left his father since his mother's death, and it was impossible and not allowed for him to go to a foreign country alone. Although Fengzhou was very close to Changle Town, he was still very flustered, and when he rode to Fengzhou in a donkey cart, his heart was beating very fast, as if he was about to break his chest. He kept telling himself in his heart that he was a man, that he was his father's only son, and that now that something had happened to his father, even if he was afraid in his heart, he had to find a way to save his father from prison.

He arrived in Toyosu with such a mood, and although the incident happened suddenly, he had already made plans wisely, but unfortunately these plans did not have any effect in the face of reality.

Most of the relationships Ning Zhixian made in Fengzhou were imprisoned with him, and the few who were lucky enough not to be implicated avoided his visits, and he didn't even enter the door of the house. Even if he sat at the door and waited for the rabbit, no one came out, and if he was pestered hard, someone would come out and scold him. He would never have endured such humiliation in front of the public, but now he has to bow his head under the roof. He laboriously curry favor with the money and constantly use the money, and finally with the help of an intermediary he finally got acquainted with the cell head of the prefect's yamen, although he could not do anything else, but it was also a great joy for him to see his father, but the cell boss opened his mouth widely.

All the money was sealed when the county government was raided that night, Ning Le escaped the catastrophe because he went home the next day to watch the lanterns, and the body on hand had already been spent, and there was no money to pay for the benefits of the cell.

Who knew that after handing over the money from the sale of Qingyu to the cell boss, the cell boss pushed tomorrow today and the day after tomorrow, always saying that he was looking for an opportunity, but in the end he didn't even show his face.

More than half a month later, when Ning Le finally realized that he had been deceived, he took a lot of effort to block the cell head and stepped forward to question.

But the cell boss was so angry that he and his companions beat him severely, and when he was near, he smacked him in the face, and scolded:

"Countryman, where did you come from, go to Lao Tzu, if you don't get out, you will be arrested and put in prison!"

Ning Le was lying on the ground with a blue nose and swollen face, and was watched by many onlookers.

The punches and kicks he thought he was proud of turned out to be just three-legged cat kung fu...... (To be continued......)

PS: I almost forgot to say, I wish you all a happy Zongzi Festival!