The three of them marched all the way to the boundary of Huguang, and the road was quite smooth, and they did not meet the pursuers, and they did not even see the sea fishing documents approved by the imperial court, we rushed to the city every day, and stayed in Zhendian at night, talking and laughing all the way, and seemed to have long forgotten that they were fleeing for their lives, but whenever they heard from the news of passers-by that King Yan had succeeded to the throne as emperor, or that King Yan had changed his year name to amnesty the world, Zhou Cong would always frown deeply, sighing.

After about two months, I finally came to the boundary of Chengtianfu, and the history books have always recorded that the Huguang area has been the land of fish and rice since ancient times, so along the way I was imagining the sparkling lake, the green corn fields, the fishing boats on the lake and the osprey on the bow of the boat, all kinds of beautiful scenery flashed in my mind like a slide, thinking about living in such a place, but it is also a beautiful thing. However, all this beautiful imagination did not happen, not long after entering the realm of Chengtianfu, we were going to abandon the horse and take the boat, this morning, Zhou Cong in a small town, the horse that had been injured before and Qi Tong's horse were sold together, and then bought a canopy fishing boat at the small ferry port in the town, Zhou Cong held the penny, so the three of them turned the waterway and continued to move forward. The fishing boat sailed all the way on the water, Zhou Cong and Qi Tong took shifts to support the boat, the boat sailed from the river into the river, and then turned into an unnamed lake from the river, and about the evening, the boat docked and stopped, the shore was densely wooded, reflecting the sunset, leaving a patch on the ground. This is not a wharf ferry, but there is a stone tablet in the grass a few steps away from the shore, after years of wind and rain, the stone tablet is missing, fortunately, the three words "Yuelun Valley" can still be recognized. Zhou Cong stepped onto the shore in one step, tied the cable to the stone tablet, turned around and stretched out his hand to me and said, "Your Highness, be careful, we have arrived, get off the boat from here, and walk five miles in the direction of the valley to the minister's old mansion."

There was only one horse, and there were no three people to sit on, so I sat on the horse, Qi Tong and Zhou Cong were walking on the side, and suddenly remembered the stone tablet, and I asked:

"General Zhou, why is this place called Yuelun Valley?"

"Back to His Royal Highness, the minister doesn't know what he means" Zhou Cong arched his hand to me while walking, "The minister has lived in the valley with his parents since he was a child, and listened to the minister's father say that the minister's great-ancestor fled with his family to avoid the tyranny, but he encountered a shipwreck on the way, and the family has settled here since then.

"Oh, yes," I nodded.

"However," Zhou Cong continued, "there is indeed something different in this valley, although the woods in the valley are lush and the climate is humid, but it cannot be cultivated, I remember that when Chen's grandfather was still alive, he took his father to cultivate the wasteland and sow seeds, but no matter what kind of seeds, how to fertilize, how to water, but never saw germination, my grandfather and my father tried many times to no avail, so they gave up, but fortunately, the valley has abundant rain, dense woods, game, wild fruits and wild vegetables have never been short. ”

"Oh?" Zhou Cong said these situations, which made me suddenly interested, and I was about to ask more, when I suddenly heard Zhou Cong pointing to the front and saying, "Your Highness, the front is the minister's old mansion." I looked in the direction of his finger, and about a few dozen meters away, there was a clearing, in the clearing there was a large courtyard surrounded by a fence, and in the courtyard there were several houses made of stone bricks, and the houses were located on a stone foundation, and a few steps were built, and the distance from the ground was some distance, and then closer, and there were two or three supports in the yard, on which some skinned rabbits and pheasants were dried, and next to it was a bow that looked very rough in workmanship, and everywhere revealed a kind of deep mountain hunter's taste.

After walking a few more steps, a figure came out of the courtyard, and looked closely, it turned out to be a girl, the same age as me, I saw that her eyes were bright and bright, her eyebrows and nose were trimmed, the pear vortex on her cheeks was slightly visible, the upper body was a linen shirt but no sleeves, the outer fur vest was slightly wide, the lower body was a pair of trousers wearing a small leather skirt, on the feet was a pair of small boots made of animal skin, there were gloves and wrists made of animal skins on her hands and wrists, and the skin of her arms showed a healthy wheat color, and she was indeed a capable appearance.

The girl walked straight towards Zhou Cong, bowed slightly, and said, "Dad, why are you back?" ”

"It's hard to say, wait a minute, come, Rui'er, this is His Royal Highness the Third Prince, hurry up and salute" said as he pointed me out to the girl.

The girl turned her gaze to me, stared at me for about a minute, and then bowed deeply, "The little woman greets His Royal Highness the Third Prince," and then, without waiting for me to respond, she went to the horse, took off her luggage and weapons, put them on her shoulders, and walked into the house first.

The scene seemed a little embarrassing, and Zhou Cong hurriedly explained to me: "This is my righteous daughter Rui'er, the first time I saw His Royal Highness, I don't know my Ming royal family etiquette, and I ask Your Highness for forgiveness."

"It's okay, what's the matter, General Zhou, this Miss Rui'er is your righteous daughter?"

"Exactly, back to His Royal Highness, the minister has lived in this valley since he was a child, about eight years ago, the minister returned to his hometown to save his relatives, one day, hunting in the valley, suddenly saw this woman picking wild fruits in the woods, ragged, the minister could not bear it, and took it back as a righteous daughter, and then handed Ruier to the care of his father and returned to the capital to take office, a few years ago, I received a letter from Rui'er's family, saying that my father passed away, and I returned to my hometown again to deal with the aftermath, that time I was going to bring Rui'er back to the capital together, how do I know that Rui'er said that he has long been accustomed to this mountain life, let me return to Beijing alone, After returning to Beijing, I was afraid that Rui'er was young and inconvenient to live alone, so I wrote a letter to a friend of my county government in this place, asking him to take care of it more, and sometimes send some silver taels.

Entering the hall, the blazing fire made the whole room very bright, Rui'er had already brought up the hot tea, and went to the kitchen to prepare the meal, the three of us sat on the futon by the fire, a cup of hot tea in the stomach, the whole body also warmed up, and used the meal, Zhou Cong said: "Your Highness, all the way to the journey, rest early, if you have something to say tomorrow" After that, he got up and walked out of the hall, Qi Tong also bowed to me, and walked out with Zhou Cong.

I was the only one left in the hall, I drank the tea cup in my hand, and when I wanted to get up and go back to the room, I suddenly saw Rui'er was holding her hands in her arms, leaning in the corner and looking at me, looking at that look, it seemed that she had been staring at me for a long time, when I met her eyes, she did not dodge, the two looked at each other for a few seconds, and for a while I felt a cold sweat behind my back, I pretended to be calm, and said:

"Miss Rui'er, is there something wrong with looking at this prince like this?"

"Who are you?" Rui'er didn't answer, and threw the question out of herself.

"I am Zhu Wenzhe, the third prince of the Ming Dynasty, General Zhou has already told the girl before!"

"What about other than this? Who are you? ”

"Huh? What do you mean? ”

I didn't know what the girl in front of me wanted to know for a while, but the scene suddenly fell silent, and I desperately thought about the answer to the question.

"Hey~~~! Forget it," Rui'er suddenly sighed, as if talking to herself, and continued, "Your Highness, the hour is not early, I'll take you back to your room to rest." With that, I turned and walked out of the hall, and I hurried to follow. My room was a separate room, just behind the hall, and Miss Rui'er opened the door and let me in, and the room was surrounded by stone walls, and the walls were decorated with bows and arrows and beast heads, and there was not much furniture in the room, a table, four stools, a large wooden bed next to the stone wall, and a large wooden screen in the opposite corner, the inside of which was now foggy.

"Your Highness, the bath water has been prepared for you, do you need me to serve you in the bath?" Rui'er said this without any waves, neither shyness nor disgust, but it made me feel embarrassed.

"No, no" I hurriedly waved my hand, "Miss Rui'er should rest early, I'll just come by myself" said that, he walked towards the back of the screen, there is a pool behind the screen, at this time the pool is steaming, the pool water seems to be introduced into the pool from outside the house, I took a closer look, this pool is only five or six square meters, it is estimated that there is a depth of 1 meter, and the steps are built on the side of the pool, so it is convenient to go down to the pool.

After more than two months of travel, I arrived here today, the sour smell of my body, seeing this hot tub, I couldn't hold it at the moment, three times five divided by two, in addition to the clothes on my body, I tested the water temperature with my hands, just right, and then walked down the steps, immersed my whole body in the water, leaving only a head outside to keep humming comfortably.

was enjoying the warm and comfortable feeling, and suddenly heard someone cough a few times behind the screen:

"Who?"

"Your Highness, the maiden has brought you a change of clothes."

"If you have Miss Lao, just put it on the screen."

"Okay, the folk girl will retire first."

The water vapor was steaming, and soon, the small bathroom was shrouded in water vapor, like a fairyland, and there was a feeling of soaring clouds. I sat in the pool, wiping my body with a towel, while thinking about the scene at dinner, Qi Tong needless to say, a small paperwork, I don't know the etiquette in the palace, but Zhou Cong, as the general of the Imperial Forest Army, is guarding the palace all the year round, and he should be very familiar with the etiquette in the palace, and along the way, Zhou Cong has always treated me with the courtesy of a monarch and minister, and there has never been anything inappropriate, but why is it that at the dinner today, he just eats and drinks by himself, and does not take more care of me, after the banquet is closed, It was also a hurried retreat, and there were no more words. Zhou Cong's attitude has changed so much that I am a little suspicious.

"Could it be that it is true that he rescued me from trouble, and he used me as a hostage to blackmail Zhu Di?"

This slightly bold guess startled me myself, but after thinking about it, it seems unlikely, I am the third son of Emperor Jianwen, for Zhu Di, Emperor Jianwen is the biggest enemy on his way to becoming the emperor, and he uses the son of the enemy to blackmail Zhu Di, with Zhu Di's personality, it is already very good not to send someone to help sharpen the knife.

"Do you want to exchange me for a high-ranking official?"

This idea can explain why Zhou Cong was so nervous when Guo Kui caught up with us, after all, the reward for one person must be better than two people, and Guo Kui may not be willing to share it between two people, but after thinking about it, it doesn't seem very reasonable, if Zhou Cong took me in exchange for a reward, why did he come all the way to bring me here? Just find a place outside the city and wait until the time is right, and then hand me in? What makes me even more concerned is that along the way, except for Guo Kui, there are no other pursuers, and I haven't even seen the official government's sea fishing documents, with Zhu Di's character, if there are people who can threaten his throne, how can he turn a blind eye?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became, and the temperature of the water in the pool made me a little dizzy, so I hurriedly got up, dried my body with the hand towel next to me, put on my clothes and walked out.

Turning the screen, I saw Rui'er laying a bed cover on the table in the living room.

"Girl, don't bother, I'll do it myself."

Rui'er didn't stop what she was doing, and she didn't pay attention to me, and said, "Your Highness sleeps on the bed, I sleep here!" ”

"Huh? Lonely men and widows are in the same room, if it spreads, I am afraid it will damage the girl's reputation! Please take me to another room. ”

"There is no other room, unless Your Highness wants to sleep under the kitchen," Rui'er sighed, and then said, "This is what my father ordered, and there are many inconveniences in the mountains and wilderness, in case Your Highness wants to drink water at night and get up at night or something, I will show you the way." ”

"Hmph, he said that he was serving me, but I'm afraid that I would run away, so he sent his daughter to monitor me." I sneered in my heart.

In that case, there is nothing to excuse. Lying on the bed, remembering that it is difficult to fall asleep without swiping the phone, but unfortunately this wish cannot be realized, thinking, if I don't talk to Rui'er, I just turned around and found Rui'er lying in the quilt staring straight at me, one hand stretched out of the quilt, and kept stroking a short knife placed on the pillow.

"Terrible woman," I hurriedly turned back to wrap myself tightly in the quilt and closed my eyes.

After a while, drowsiness hit me, and I fell into a deep sleep.