Sandalwood curls, and the faint light of the candle moves with the slight undulation of the waves.

She saw the blue surface of the sea, the clear agate light, and when she turned around, below the ocean was a huge abyss with no end in sight.

The deep and massive darkness was terrifying, and there was a hallucinatory chaotic sound in my ears, and a yellow figure threw itself into the water.

The moment I sat up, the noise faded into the darkness around me, and I was still in front of the familiar cabin, the futon with a slight aroma after being smoked every day, a little star, and the undulating waves outside the window.

From outside the cabin came the sound of Suo getting up.

"Your Highness, are you awake?"

"It's okay, you don't have to come in."

Zhou Pei replied, sat quietly on the candlelit bed for a while, turned her head to look at the sky outside, and then got dressed.

When she got out of bed and walked to the outer room, Xiao Song, the maid who was staying in the cubicle, had also quietly gotten up, asked Zhou Pei if she wanted to bring water to wash, and followed her outside.

Orange lanterns were still lit up in the hallway through the cabin, leading to the doorway to the large deck. Leaving the upper deck of the inner cabin, the sky on the sea is still not bright, the waves are undulating on the sea surface, the stars and moon in the sky seem to be embedded in the blue gray transparent glass, and the sky and the sea are integrated in the boundless place at the end of the view.

Looking back, the huge dragon ship is dimly lit, like a palace sailing on the sea.

Ten years ago, in order to facilitate Zhou Yong's escape, countless craftsmen spliced together more than a dozen large ships, and carried out various transformations to build this huge sea dragon palace that was shaped like land even on the windy sea. After moving to Lin'an, the dragon boat was moored on the wharf of the Qiantang River, and it was dissolved into all kinds of craftsman ingenuity, in this calm night, looking back, it was really magnificent and graceful.

But in Zhou Pei's heart, it is difficult to have the slightest ups and downs.

The huge dragon ship fleet has been adrift at sea for three months, leaving Lin'an in the summer, but now it is approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, in three months, many things have happened on the ship, Zhou Pei's mood from despair to death, at the end of June, while his father came over, the surrounding guards avoided, Zhou Pei jumped off the side of the ship.

Then, the first figure to jump into the sea was Zhou Yong in an imperial robe.

Since the Jurchens went south, Zhou Yong was frightened, his body was once emaciated to the skin and bones, he used to indulge in lust, but now, his physique is even weaker, but on this day at the end of June, with his daughter's jumping into the sea, not many people can explain Zhou Yong's conditioned reflex at that moment - he has always been afraid of death and jumped down to the sea.

His jumping into the sea was of no practical avail, and if it hadn't been for the guards who had jumped into the sea to rescue the two of them, both father and daughter would have drowned in the sea.

But because of such a move, after being rescued, Zhou Pei's hatred for Zhou Yong gradually turned into more complex emotions, she cried in the room for a long time, and was no longer willing to see Zhou Yong, but Zhou Yong gradually fell ill after that, first a minor illness, and gradually worsened by mid-July, and by this time, she had collapsed on the sickbed and could not get out of bed.

In such a situation, whether it is hatred or contempt, for Zhou Pei, it seems to have become an empty thing.

She sat on the deck under the night sky, quietly looking at the stars and moon, the autumn sea breeze blew, with water vapor and fishy smell, the maid Komatsu stood quietly behind, I don't know when, Zhou Pei tilted her head slightly, noticing that there were tears on her face.

She moved the bench out of the way and said, "Sit down." ”

"Slaves don't dare."

"You're Zhao Xianggong's granddaughter, right?"

“…… Well. The maid Komatsu wiped her tears, "Slave maid...... I just remembered the poems my grandfather taught. ”

"I hear you...... The moon rises in the sea, and the end of the world is at this time...... You are also a scholarly family, when I was in Lin'an, I heard people say your name. Zhou Pei tilted his head and whispered, the Zhao Xianggong in her mouth was Zhao Ding, when she gave up Lin'an, Zhou Yong summoned Qin Hui and others to the ship, and also summoned Zhao Ding, but Zhao Ding never came, only sent a few promising grandchildren in the family to the dragon boat: "You shouldn't be a slave's ......"

As she said this, Zhao Xiaosong behind her couldn't suppress the emotions in her heart, and cried more and more intensely, reaching out to wipe her tears. Zhou Pei felt sad - she understood why Zhao Xiaosong was so sad, the autumn moon in front of her was cross-waved, the sea breeze was quiet, she remembered that the moon rose in the sea and the end of the world at this time, but the family and grandfather in Lin'an were probably already dead under the butcher's knife of the Jurchens, and the entire Lin'an was probably about to be burned at this time.

This intense sadness tightly grasped her heart, making her heart ache as if it was being squeezed by a huge hammer, but on Zhou Pei's face, there was no emotion, she quietly looked at the sky and sea in front of her, and slowly spoke.

"If I'm not mistaken, when Xiao Song was in Lin'an, he had the name of a talented woman, you are sixteen this year, right? Have you ever promised a kiss, do you have a sweetheart? ”

Zhao Xiaosong shook his head sadly, and Zhou Pei looked indifferent. By this year, she was nearly thirty years old, her marriage was unhappy, she was busy with many things, and in a blink of an eye, more than ten years of time were gone, and at this time, the rush along the way finally turned into an empty existence, she looked at Zhao Xiaosong, and only vaguely could see herself when she was a girl more than ten years ago.

"It's okay if you don't, when you encounter such a year, love and love, it will inevitably become something hurtful in the end. At your age, I was very envious of the games of the talented and beautiful people in the market. In retrospect, we ...... When I left Lin'an, it was the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the Dragon Boat Festival, right? More than ten years ago in Jiangning, there was a Dragon Boat Festival song, I don't know if you have heard it......"

Zhou Pei recalled the lyrics, and sang slowly and in a low voice: "Light sweat is slightly transparent, and the Dragon Boat Festival of the Ming Dynasty bathes in Fanglan." The fragrance is full of clear rivers. The colored thread is lightly wrapped around the red jade arm, and the small charm hangs obliquely on the green cloud mustache. Meet the beauties...... A Thousand Years ......"

She chanted this charming word to the end, her voice gradually became inaudible, but the corner of her mouth smiled: "Now, it's almost the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there are Mid-Autumn Festival words...... When is the bright moon, ask the wine to the sky...... I don't know what year it is in the heavenly palace......"

This low chant turned to singing, sounding lightly and softly on this deck, Zhao Xiaosong knew the author of this lyrics, in the past, these lyrics were also circulated in the mouths of the ladies in Lin'an, but what came out of the mouth of the eldest princess was a singing style and tune that Zhao Xiaosong had never heard.

She looked at the princess in front of her, and saw that her face was still as calm as water, but the words seemed to contain countless things. These things she still can't understand, they were more than ten years ago, and the seemingly endless tranquility and prosperity flowed like water......

Xiao Song listened to the voice, the sorrow in her heart was gradually infected, and at some point, she subconsciously asked: "Your Highness, I heard that that gentleman was really your teacher back then?" ”

This was not what she should have asked, the voice fell, and I saw that in the bright and dim light, the eldest princess, whose expression had been calm, pressed her forehead, and the time was as ruthless as a wheel, and tears fell in an instant.

- The news from the land came a few days ago.

For the danger of Lin'an, Zhou Yong was not prepared to flee in advance, and the dragon boat fleet was in a hurry, and in the initial time, he was afraid of being caught by the Jurchens, and he did not dare to dock at will, and stayed at sea for more than two months, before stopping for a while, and sent people to land to find out the news.

The news turned around four days ago, after Zhou Yong read it, he vomited blood and fainted, and called Zhou Pei over after waking up, which was the first time the father and daughter met after Zhou Pei jumped into the sea at the end of June.

At this time, Zhou Yong's illness intensified, he was so thin that he couldn't get out of bed, he looked at Zhou Pei who came over, and handed her the news, with only a heavy sadness on his face. That day, Zhou Pei also read the news, his body trembled, and he gradually cried.

Since Zhou Yong abandoned Lin'an and left, throughout May, the situation in the world was brewing drastic changes in chaos, and by June, the outline had been revealed, and in June and July, many forces that originally belonged to the Wu Dynasty had begun to express their attitudes.

In June, Jiaxing, an important town near Lin'an, refused to surrender and was broken by the rebels and the Jurchen army, and the Jurchens slaughtered the city for ten days. At the end of June, Suzhou looked down on the wind, and the important towns in the Taihu Lake basin successively expressed their positions, and as for July, more than half of the people surrendered in Kaesong.

From the banks of the Yangtze River to Lin'an, this is the richest core of the Wu Dynasty, and there are those who resist, but they are becoming more and more powerless. The military generals who had been criticized by the civil officials of the Wu Dynasty for their excessive authority finally began to appear in the whole world at this time, in the Jiangnan West Road, the military and political officials broke out because the order could not be unified and the chaos broke out, and the military general Hongdu led the troops into the Jizhou Prefecture, put all the officials in prison, and raised the banner of reducing gold, and on the Fujian Road, the two armies that were originally arranged here were already preparing to kill.

Liu Guangshi, who had traveled south from Xiangyang, entered the Dongting Lake area and began to divide land and collect power, while at the same time creating friction with the Muhan troops in the north and the Miaojiang Black Flag that invaded Changsha. In this situation where countless people and countless forces in the world have begun to act, the Jurchen's order has been issued, driving all the Wu Dynasty troops who have nominally reduced their gold to begin to pull out their camps and march westward, and the soldiers are pointing directly at the black flag, and a big war to truly determine the belonging of the world is imminent.

And in such a situation, the authority that once belonged to the Wu Dynasty has collapsed in front of everyone's eyes.

The fall of a dynasty may take several years, but for Zhou Yong and Zhou Pei, all this, the huge chaos, may not be the most important.

In July, Junwu, who had entered Jiangning, refused all orders from the small court of Lin'an, rectified military discipline, and did not retreat or surrender. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of troops under the command of Zong Fu, together with the surrendered Han army that had originally gathered here, and the Wu Dynasty troops that surrendered and opened one after another, began to launch a fierce attack on Jiangning, and by the end of July, they arrived near Jiangning one after another, and the total number of troops attacking had reached one million, and even half of the troops were once under the command and jurisdiction of Prince Junwu, and after Zhou Yong left, they defected one after another.

Wanyan Zongfu released his words, even if Jiangning was an iron city, he would dissolve it into a pot of molten iron.

The turmoil in the world was taking place violently, and the westward advance of the Jurchens had just begun, so in June and July, a Jiangning city turned into the core of the most fierce war in the whole world. The Wu Dynasty has collapsed, and only the former prince of the Wu Dynasty, leading several troops of Beiwei and Zhenhai, is like a desperate beast whose homeland has been destroyed, making a stubborn and tragic resistance on this ruin.

Ahead of it, the enemy was still surging like a tidal wave.

No one knows how long this tenacity will last.

"I'm sorry Junwu...... I'm sorry...... My son......"

Maybe it was the day when he threw himself into the sea that took away his vitality and his fear, Zhou Yong's sanity gradually regained at that moment, and in Zhou Pei's crying, he just muttered this sentence.

In the afternoon of the same day, he summoned the ministers of the small court and decided to abdicate and pass his throne to Junwu, who was in danger, to give him the last help. But soon after, it was opposed by the ministers. Qin Hui and others put forward various pragmatic views, believing that this matter was harmful to both the Wu Dynasty and the Jun Wu.

Zhou Yong fainted in the quarrel and noise of the ministers.

And Zhao Xiaosong also knew the news that Lin'an was slaughtered on that day, and his grandfather and family may have died miserably......