In early January, inside the city of Lieson

On this day, it is the "Tim Festival" of Youya.

Gu Key took a deep breath and stepped over the familiar and unfamiliar streets of the promenade. After all, this is the first time he has come back in a real sense since he went to military service for so many years, and besides, he also caught up with the Tianjie Festival as the beginning of the year in time. The eyebrows faced the huge expensive copper door in front of him, and there was a huge plaque hanging on the door beam, and the pen walked with four big characters "Liexun Ancient Mansion". The color on it tends to be cyan, and there is a slight red variegation around it, adding a bit of solemnity. He looked at the two symmetrical rings of gold beast faces on the bronze door, his mouth wide open, and his face was hideous.

Gu Key hesitated and stretched out his hand to pull the ring, but for a while, no one came out to answer the door. He felt a little strange, according to the distribution of positions in the ancient mansion, there was a special person responsible for the repair and maintenance of the bronze door, and when there were guests outside the door, he was also responsible for answering the door and reporting everything to the head of the house.

The ancient key pulled the auxiliary head on the door again, and waited anxiously.

But after waiting for a long time, no one answered. He was timid, and just as he was about to retreat and decide to give up, there was a sound on the bronze door that seemed to open and close the deadbolt. Gu Key was startled, and his withdrawn left foot was retracted.

A half-blind old slave who opened the door, the old slave observed the young man in front of him with another eye that was not good for a long time, and his half-squinted cloudy eyes slowly turned around, but he never could see what the identity of the young man in front of him was. He was so old, so old that he didn't even have much use for his eyes.

"Uncle, I'm ...... It's the Ancient Key. Gu Jian saw the old slave in front of him clearly, but he didn't know the name of the old slave, he only remembered that this old slave had been beaten and scolded by him often. Now the Ancient Key was facing him, and there were only some meaningless confessions left.

"Key...... Young master? The old slave's godless eyes looked at the ancient key again, and his withered hands slowly touched his face.

It was like being scratched by the bark of a tree, which made Gu Key very uncomfortable, "Yes...... Uncle, I'm the ancient key. ”

"Childe, you...... Leaving the lord, it has been ...... It's been a long time. The old slave realized that something was wrong, and retracted his hand sluggishly, bowed his body lower, and turned around and walked towards the house, "Master...... I've been thinking about you too. ”

The ancient key was gloomy, followed the old slave, and went to close the door of the mansion instead of him, the extremely high door bolt really made him unable to imagine how much an old slave had to use to remove or close the door bolt.

This is the work of a slave, an animal that is inferior to a servant. It seems that since the ancient key has been remembered, this old slave has been doing chores in the ancient family, and his origin ...... Maybe it was when the Lotin Mansion was about to fall, and it wandered from the north.

At that time, the young Ancient Key often took pleasure in teasing him. He was already stubborn by nature, and tried every means to torture this old slave, whether it was torture or punishment, this old slave could only endure silently, after all, slaves can only do these jobs.

As he gets older, Gu Key has learned a lot of things, and it seems that he is tired of playing these ordinary teasings, so he rarely abuses the old slave anymore. One day, he suddenly became very interested in the origin of the old slave, so he asked the old slave to kneel in front of him and curiously asked him about his origin and past. For the first time in so many years, he realized how abrupt the appearance of this old slave was, so much later that he came up with it.

But what is the origin of the old slave, but he is a barbarian who came from exile after the fall of the northern nation. Obviously, his answer didn't seem to satisfy the Ancient Key, and the young Ancient Key was happy to do this kind of punishment that would pass the time.

After that, he tied his limbs tightly to the huge plane tree in the vestibule with extremely rough hemp rope. At the behest of the ancient key, the family happily whipped the disobedient slave with a whip, and the usual resentment and dissatisfaction were all inflicted on him at this moment. From beginning to end, the old slave did not howl.

But the less he howled, the less he cried, as a sign of pain. The more frustration of the ancient key arises. The family members are good at observing words and feelings, and know the intentions of this little young master and the vulgar bad habits. In order to please him, he made twelve points stronger.

Until the old slave's skin was opened and he passed out, he didn't move his lips once.

It was now past evening, and the twilight sky was gradually turning red and yellow. The darker and darker inks stain the last of the afterglow until the last trace disappears. The mansion of the ancient family is lit up and down, and the aroma of cooking in the kitchen is overflowing. Dozens of housekeepers and maids ran forward and backwards, sweating profusely and sending all kinds of dishes to the main room.

This is the most important festival since the establishment of the dynasty of Youya Kingdom, "Tim Festival". The meaning of the meaning is more auspicious. On this day, even the poorest families will prepare some things that are difficult to eat on weekdays at the beginning of the year, hoping for the auspicious signs of the next year. And the Gu family, a big family, is even more luxurious and extravagant.

At this time, a family member suddenly ran through the old slave, and half of his body leaned on the short old slave, and suddenly brought the old slave to the ground, and fell hard.

"Old thing, don't you have eyes?" The family scolded a few words in a panic and quickly ran away. He was so busy with work that he didn't even have to stop here to make up for a few more feet.

This kind of very normal behavior in the house actually made Gu Key feel very sad. He used to be such a person.

The old slave struggled to stand up, but he still couldn't stand up after holding on a few times, and Gu Jian took a deep look at the direction in which the family had left, and helped the old slave up. Shicai's family didn't notice the ancient key next to the old slave, it seemed that in his eyes, the people who were involved with the old slave were nothing more than inferior people, and naturally they didn't have the usual sincerity and fear.

"Old man......" Gu Key choked a little, "Are you okay?" ”

"I didn't ...... It's okay, Childe, get up, I'm a subordinate. The old slave looked at Gu Key, as if he didn't understand why this evil young man would personally help him up.

The ancient key loosened the old slave, knowing that no matter what he did, he couldn't let go of the guard of these subordinates. In their eyes, he is still a gentleman, a dog and a horse.

Walking to the atrium, the open passage runs through the huge square, and there are people who look like martial artists teaching and practicing how to hold swords against the enemy and some conventional swordsmanship. The juniors were sweating hotly, struggling to raise their knives and slash forward according to the requirements of the martial artist, but they were quite serious. Several long-haired old men stroked their beards and laughed, as if they were discussing which of the next generation would persevere to the end, worrying about what to reward him.

Gu Key stared at the descendants who practiced the sword, and sat on a nearby stone step to watch casually. Dozens of domestic servants walking through the house were busy with Zhang Luo's affairs, so they didn't have the heart to care about this strange person.

The black robe he wore was newly bought in the silk workshop when he came to Liesun City, otherwise he would definitely be targeted by the officials in the city if he was wearing a cold black iron armor. In order to avoid people's eyes and ensure the secrecy of the interrogation, several people had to temporarily change their clothes.

Some of the cold coarse linen black robes are not so pleasant to wear. Gu Key pinched the corner of his robe slightly, trying to smooth out the linen cloth that stuck to his body so that he would not be so unbearable. Before leaving, Lu Biao did not give much gold baht to everyone, perhaps he had asked the person in charge of the account book to calculate the expenses of the group to go to Lie Xun in advance, so he gave the most accurate gold baht.

This had to make Gu Key a little resentful, and a good budget of gold baht meant that there was no remaining money to buy wine or food. The gold baht he and Sikong Xi won in the gambling house was confiscated by Lu Biao, and I still don't know what those gold baht is used for. He remembered that night Sikong Xi came back from outside sneakily and looked at him as if he had something to say.

"Senior brother, do you know...... Sikong Xi whispered, "the Huangqing Pond of the Governor in the side garden." ”

"Of course I know," Gu Key felt a little strange, "what's wrong with Huang Qingchi?" ”

"Today I deliberately ran over to check it out, and it seems that there are several more big koi."

Gu Key was stunned, "Maybe...... Did the governor buy it? ”

"Of course it's new!" Sikong Xi's expression became strange, "Then do you know where the governor's money comes from?" ”

"Is it difficult to ......" Gu Key found bad signs.

"That's right, it's the gold baht we won that night...... Sikong Xi hated, as if he had caught some trick from Lu Biao.

The sound of shouting and teaching came, and Gu Jian held up his cheeks and listened quite carefully, secretly shouting hello to this martial artist from time to time. Judging from these moves, it seems that the Gu family did invite a good teacher, maybe it was a centurion who was wounded on the battlefield and had no intention of going into battle.

The old slave behind him had quietly left when the ancient key was not paying attention. He didn't have anything to spare, this was his former home after all. Those layout facilities, in the past, he was extremely sloppy and knew the placement of ornaments well.

But in this place and no one cares about it, feeling the atmosphere of the past seems to be a bit extravagant for Gu Key, for the purpose of Yi Yu's visit. In mid-air, the fragrance of bell flowers that seemed to still waft on the tip of his nose made him suddenly think of something.

The ancient key arrived at Liesun this morning, and after being guided by the eyes and ears inside Liesun, he first settled down in his residence. Yi Yu still had other tasks to do before the governor, so he asked the ancient keys to live in the city for a while. Maybe it's going to be a long time, maybe it's going to be fast, no one can say. Yi Yu left only these words and left.

"Middle Gate! Raise! Raise! The martial artist's roar came.

The descendants followed and made a straight stab. Most of them look quite jerky, and some of them have a rebellious afterlife on their faces, but they are quite comfortable. Maybe it's due to daily practice and extraordinary talent. This is the norm in the family, the friction between the clans and the evil intentions of their respective branches. No one can stop this, and there is no way to avoid it.

"Brother Key!?"

Gu Key's body froze, and his slightly bowed body slowly straightened up. He looked left and right, desperately looking for the sound of a silver bell, which was unusually familiar, but could not find it.

"Oh, here I am! Where to look! A shadow appeared, and the eyes that were like a clear water bent into a crescent moon. The cold wind blew away the girl's green silk, like a touch of shock, like a vine flower...... The lingering fragrance of the bell tang flowers in the middle of the air is becoming more and more intense.

Gu Key subconsciously grabbed the slender hand and caught a glimpse of the familiar figure that could not be more familiar.