In late spring and early summer, the sun has begun to show signs of scorching heat, and after standing in the sun for a long time, the skin will have a slight burning sensation.

Su Li sat under a trembling small tree, learning to stack ingots with paper money as she did on the seventh and eighth days of the new year, and dug two new pits next to the grave not far away, and the yellow-brown soil was piled up into a hill, and the sound of people digging the pits was humming and humming from inside.

A quarter of an hour later, Chu Huai'an climbed out of the pit with Eleven.

The two of them were so hot that they took off their shirts and wore only trousers, and they could clearly see the light refracted by fine beads of sweat in the sunlight.

Eleven has not yet grown up, he has not eaten well since he was a child, and his body is weak, so he sets off Chu Huai'an's robustness to the fullest.

Chu Huai'an is very white, and after sweating, it is even more white and glowing, these days I don't know what he has done, the muscles of his arms, chest, waist and abdomen are hard and bulging, and the white flowers are dazzling when he walks.

Su Li's eyes flashed slightly, and she asked the seventh and eighth days of the junior high school to go to the back carriage and bring dry handkerchiefs and mung bean soup over.

Eleven honestly wiped his body with a handkerchief, got dressed and sat down, and drank mung bean soup in small sips to quench his thirst, Chu Huaian took the handkerchief and didn't rush to wipe it, and sat down next to Su Li.

"How much more do you have to fold?"

He asked, breathing a little heavily, and his voice was deep and a little hoarse, tickling people's hearts.

The weather was getting hotter, they were all dressed thinly, he sat unruly, one thigh was crossed, and the scorching temperature passed through the clothes to Su Li's legs, adding two points of dryness to the heat.

"It's okay right away, you wipe your sweat and put on your clothes first, otherwise it's easy to catch the cold."

Su Li said calmly, folding the ingots in his hand without stopping, Chu Huai'an nodded, and was about to wipe his sweat, when he inadvertently saw Su Li drooping his eyes, his face slightly tilted to the other side, as if he was avoiding and didn't dare to look at him, and his white earlobes were dyed a little crimson at some point, like a good peach, with a fragrant fragrance, which made people want to take a bite.

The Adam's apple rolled up and down, and Chu Huaian picked up the bowl of mung bean soup next to him and drank it down, suppressing the restlessness in his chest.

Su Li learns quickly, her fingers are also dexterous, and after stacking a few, she is better than the seventh and eighth stacks of the first month.

Eleven drank the soup, rested for a while, got up and carried the stele on his back.

The stele was heavy, and it was particularly heavy on his thin shoulders, but he gritted his teeth and didn't say a word, and walked steadily step by step.

He is the last child adopted by Qi Niang, although he has been with Qi Niang for the shortest time, he is older than the seventh and eighth years of the first year.

Qi Niang was gone, and the bones were not found, so Su Li asked Su Hengxiu to help Qi Niang also carve a life-size wood carving instead.

Su Li watched Eleven carry the stele to the newly dug pit step by step, and in addition to sadness, there were also doubts in her heart.

Is that elder really dead? After she escaped from Lizhou, she sneaked into Beijing, was it to assassinate the Queen Mother on her birthday?

But no one has seen her true face, is it really her who was killed by Chu Huaian and Gu Jiong?

"What are you thinking?"

Chu Huai'an asked, putting on his clothes, but the neckline was loose and uninhibited.

Su Li folded the ingots in his hand and helped him straighten out his neckline: "I think this elder died too easily, and I think it's a little unreal." ”

"No matter how much she pretends to be a god, she is just a person, not a god, even if she escapes this time, she still has to kill if she wants to live, as long as she kills, she will always show her feet, if she dares to show up again, I can kill her again!"

Chu Huai'an said mercilessly, his tone was confident and determined, Su Li suppressed his doubts and nodded: "Hmm." ”

After the ingots were folded, the guards on the side carried the coffin with wood carvings to bury, and Su Li took the ingots to burn on the seventh and eighth days of the first month.

Su Zhaoyue's wood carving is next to her tomb, Su Li didn't erect another monument, she just wanted to try her best to make up for it, and also make Su Zhaoyue a little more complete in the sky.

It didn't take long for the corpse of the person killed by Chu Huai'an to turn into a pool of fishy blood, and Su Li failed to break her bones and scatter ashes, but Chu Huai'an asked An Jue's bones to be dug up, and Su Li smashed the bones into pieces and scattered them on the official road from the capital to Longxi County.

If there are no bones and no dead souls, there are many cars and horses coming and going on this road, and he should be trampled and crushed by thousands of people, and he will be tortured.

Eleven wanted to go back to guard Qi Niang's coffin shop with the seventh and eighth days of the first month, Su Li did not agree, they were still too young, so they stayed in the coffin shop Su Li was not at ease, so she promised to keep the coffin shop, and only come back after they were older and had the ability to protect themselves, the three of them had no opinion, and went back together to live in the county lord's mansion.

Because of the death of the Queen Mother, Yuan Zhao Kingdom was not allowed to marry for three years, and the secret marriage of Lu Ji and Gu Li was also put on hold.

White flags were hung up and down the palace, and the shops on the street were replaced with brightly colored doors and windows to make the colors look as plain as possible.

Chu Ling Zhao took a break for three days and personally guarded filial piety in the mourning hall.

No palace people approached for those three days, and no one knew what kind of mood this young emperor was in when he sent away his biological mother.

Ten days later, the Queen Mother was buried and buried with the highest etiquette, Chu Lingzhao saw him off all the way, Chu Lingxi and Chu Huaian personally carried the coffin out of the palace, dozens of palace people sprinkled paper money and cried for mourning, and the people of the whole city sent each other silently.

The queen mother, who enjoyed all the grace during her lifetime and was buried after her death, was dignified and benevolent in her life in the records of the Yuanzhao historical books, and was a model of the mother of the country as a wife, and was a virtuous and affectionate mother, and should be respected and admired by future generations.

No one knew that she had poisoned her own nephew, causing a palace riot, and no one knew that she had ordered the assassination of Xiaoyao Marquis and the general of Zhenbian, which almost killed Yuanzhao.

The minister at the birthday banquet that day vaguely remembered that after the queen mother ate the longevity noodles, she scolded Chu Lingzhao with a hideous face: "Rebel! If you dare to kill your mother, you will be struck by thunder from heaven! ”

The Queen Mother died and hated the son she conceived and gave birth to in October. But after her death, her heartless son gave her the greatest tolerance and helped her whitewash the glory of her life.

Rest in peace, Queen Mother......

After the burial of the Queen Mother, the lives of the people of Yuanzhao Kingdom soon returned to normal, but the court was a dead air, and a top-down, drastic reform was sweeping in thunder.

First of all, the reform of the imperial examination system, the people who participated in the imperial examination were no longer limited to scholarly families, and they could participate in the cloth and clothing, not by family background, only by character and knowledge, this law was implemented by Taifu Gu Yuanfeng, and many veteran ministers of Tai Academy were quietly persuaded to retire and return to their hometowns.

Then there is the rectification of the Chaogang, by the Dali Temple Shaoqing Zhao Hanzhuo to the six officials one by one to review, there are corruption, traitors, all dismissed from their official positions, exiled barbarians, of which the military department is the top priority, embezzlement of military salaries, sentenced to death, and punish the nine clans!

There is also the rectification of military discipline, Xiaoyao Hou was ordered to take over the hussar army, with iron discipline as the first officer, those who formed a party for personal gain, those who bullied others, and those who defected to the enemy rebels, all of them were cleaned up and rectified.

Finally, the information between the local post station and the capital, the post station officials are no longer stationed in the post station all the year round, but take turns to serve, return to Beijing once every two years, and write down the political achievements during the term of office before submitting the report to the emperor, if there is no action within four years, they will automatically take off their official hats and resign.

These changes were all carried out in secret, and except for the most core few people, everyone else had no idea what was going on.

Tai Academy is a place where civil officials gather, and it is also the place where civil officials resigned the most at the beginning, Chu Lingzhao is not afraid of being ignored and finds himself drastically reducing civil officials.

After those officials were resigned, this year's imperial examination was temporarily abolished, and Gu Yuanfeng only had one year to prepare for next year's imperial examination, so he had to leave Beijing to personally visit some elegant scholars who did not like the atmosphere of officialdom and were proud to hide in the world, and asked them to go out of the mountains and enter the court to select some talents with real talent and hard work for Yuanzhao.

Chu Lingxi stayed for a while after the Queen Mother's burial and then returned to his fiefdom, he was an idle prince before, but now he has also been instructed by Chu Lingzhao to strengthen military training after returning to the fiefdom, even if it is a daily garrison in a city like Lizhou City, when the war arises, it must be a knife that can be picked up, not scattered sand!

Lu Ji is now the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, temporarily staying in Beijing and training in the Xishan military camp, just to rectify the bad atmosphere of those soldiers and horses before.

The hussars were stationed in the northwest, and after Chu Huai'an received the order, he was asked to lead his troops to the northwest.

The night before leaving Beijing, he went over the wall to see Su Li, who made him seven or eight pairs of knee pads, made a few clothes that were convenient for daily training, and prepared ointment for bruises, all packed into a small package.

Chu Huai'an took the package and kissed Su Li to the point of almost suffocation, and finally gasped and made a request in her ear: "Don't come to see me off tomorrow!" ”

Su Li responded well, slept peacefully until dawn the next day, and sure enough, she didn't send him.

Later, I heard from the people in Beijing that the Marquis of Xiaoyao was wearing a silver armor and sitting on a horse with a double dragon twisted bead sword, handsome and extraordinary, like a god descending, I don't know how many women's hearts were captured, but his eyes swept around the crowd one after another, as if he had been waiting for someone.

When she heard this, Su Li was soaking her hands in medicinal water under Yue Yan's urging, and the corners of her lips hooked when she heard this, which was a little funny.

It's clear that he didn't let her send it, so what did he do with her when he came? This person wouldn't hold a grudge because she really didn't hold a grudge, would he?

But Su Li thought about it, in fact, there was nothing to hold a grudge against, when she left, wouldn't he be able to come to see her off?

During the Dragon Boat Festival of the Yuanzhao National Snow Festival, the Hu envoys who stayed in Yuanzhao for nearly half a year finally left Beijing.

On the day when the envoys left Beijing, they sat in the same colorful carriage as when they came, the king of the Hu people sat on the carriage with a calm face, the curtain of the carriage was raised, and the bold people threw melons and fruits to the carriage to show friendship, and the Shaoqing of Dali Temple sat on a horse and led the envoys out of the city, and everyone found that there was a woman wearing a veil in the carriage that followed the king.

The woman's dress was the same as that of Princess Huren, but she was holding a porcelain-white white jade jar in her hand, which looked very precious, and was carved with delicate and beautiful lines, which was not extraordinary, but it was very strange no matter how she looked at it.

Because the shape of the altar is very similar to the urn of ashes commonly used by the people of Yuanzhao.

Didn't Princess Huren come to kiss? How could you leave Beijing with an ash jar?

Everyone was puzzled, but they had no way to find out what was going on, and they could only be tickled by the unknowable secret.

All the way out of the imperial city, Zhao Hanzhuo turned over and dismounted: "Your Majesty has sent fifty elite escorts to the king and the envoys, may you all have a safe journey!" Yuanzhao and the nobles can always be good neighbors and friendly! ”

Zhao Hanzhuo said the official polite words, and when he arrived here, there was no need for a hypocritical response, he snorted between his noses, and the warrior driving the carriage waved his whip violently and galloped away.

After the envoys all walked out, Zhao Hanzhuo returned to the city and ordered in a cold voice: "Close the city gate!" ”

The slow muffled sound of the heavy gates signaled the brief and peaceful beginning of the War of the Dead, though no one knew what kind of terrifying undercurrents were behind it......

Two months later, Night, Hudi, Khulun Palace.

Hudi bitter cold, windy sand, the palace is not as tall and magnificent as the Yuanzhao royal family, even the Tartar is only one floor, but the roof of the palace is very high, in the shape of an arc, the center of the roof is made of glazed a round skylight, when the sunlight and moonlight are sprinkled down, there will be a brilliant streamer pouring down.

In Hudi, they believe that it is a holy light given by the gods.

When Hu Ren heard the news that Kutar was coming back, he came to greet him early, and after seeing Su Li and the columbarium she was holding, everyone's eyes became vicious.

They all knew that Su Li was holding Ku Keduo's ashes in her hands.

It was their great warrior, and the son of their gods, a man who was more likely to bring them strength and wealth than Kutar, but that man was killed by the people of Yuanzhao, and not only that, but he was burned to ashes.

The Hu people believe in gods and practice celestial burials, and the corpse has not been completely preserved, which is a very infuriating thing.

Su Li could clearly feel that the gaze that fell on her was gradually like a sharp knife, as if she was eager to peel her skin and bones and eat her raw.

Ignoring those gazes, he took Su Li straight to his palace, and as soon as he entered, Su Li saw a stove under the glazed skylight, and the fire inside was blue, and the old wizard stood beside the stove and danced the witch dance that had been handed down since ancient times, praying for the blessing of the dead.

"In the past."

Suddenly, Su Li walked over with the urn in her arms, and the wizard looked at her with a hideous face, muttering obscure nonsense in his mouth, which was a bit like chanting a mantra.

Su Li listened expressionlessly, I don't know how long it took, the wizard snatched the ashes jar from her hand, reached out and grabbed a handful of ashes and sprinkled them on the stove, at this time his movements became extremely gentle, and even his hideous face became soft, like a mother holding her newborn child.

I don't know what was put in the furnace in advance, after the ashes were sprinkled, the flames suddenly jumped high, like the undead after the death of Ku Keduo with a lot of unwillingness.

The wizard kept sprinkling ashes inside, and kept looking at the flames and talking, giving the illusion that he was communicating with the ghosts.

Halfway through the scattering of the ashes, the wizard raised his foot and kicked Su Li's leg, and Su Li knelt down.

The floor tiles were stiff, and Su Li's knees hurt very much.

Su Li gritted his teeth and didn't say a word, the wizard put the last bit of ashes into a bowl, the bowl was filled with black and red liquid in advance, and it was stirred up after a while, and the wizard walked up to Su Li with the bowl and scribbled on Su Li's face with the sticky thing.

Closer, Su Li smelled the smell of that thing, a bit like dog blood.

Is this exorcism or spelling?

Su Li couldn't figure it out, and after the wizard finished drawing, he folded his hands and recited a few spells, and then nodded between Su Li's eyebrows.

A slight stinging pain came, like a tiny needle tip pricked in the center of her eyebrows, Su Li subconsciously raised her hand and wanted to touch it, and a sudden voice came: "From today on, you are guarding here." ”

Su Li remembered that Hu Tar told Chu Lingzhao that she was asking her to be widowed by Hu Keduo, and from the moment she stepped into the Kulun Palace, it had already begun.

The funeral rules of the Hu people are actually much simpler than those of Yuan Zhao, but Hu Keduo's identity is different, and he died miserably, so it is a little different from ordinary funeral rites.

In the Hu people, if they die outside, the soul cannot come back by itself, and someone needs to guard a pot of fire to ensure that the fire is not extinguished and burns for 7749 days before the undead can be recalled.

If a person dies a miserable death, although the deceased has returned to his hometown, he cannot die, and he still needs to continue to guard the fire, chant sutras and recite the Buddha, keep it for a year, and finally sacrifice with the blood of his heart, so that the deceased can be freed from the suffering of this life and enter the reincarnation as a human being.

When Su Li knew that she still had to sacrifice with her heart and blood, she knew that Kutar still wanted her own life, but there was still more than a year to go, and she could adapt to it at that time.

I knelt for two days, and on the third day, someone came to take Su Li to bathe and change clothes.

The clothes are naturally the costumes of the Hu women, the colors are bright, the embroidery patterns are not as fine as those of Yuan Zhao, and they are mostly based on birds and beasts, and they are decorated with heavy silver jewelry.

After changing her clothes, those people helped Su Li comb the Hu woman's hairstyle, arched it with horns in the middle, and put on a headdress made of animal teeth and fur, which was indescribably weird.

Dressed up, a few people sent Su Li back, as soon as she stepped into the house, Su Li heard two hurried sounds, and when she lifted her eyes, she saw that the mural with a strange painting style was reflecting two overlapping figures.

The stove sprinkled with Kukeduo's ashes was still burning, and the sound was getting hotter and hotter, and Su Li frowned slightly.

She knew that Hu Ren had never abided by human ethics, but what kind of bad hobby was it to do such a thing in front of her son's ashes?

Su Li stood at the door for a long time, and suddenly panted and shouted: "Come in!" ”

Su Li hesitated for a moment, took off an animal tooth from the headdress, held it in his hand, and stepped in, and the picture that caught his eyes was really unbearable.

The woman dodged for a moment, was slapped by the Tartar, and then cried out in pain.

Su Li stood beside him, looking at it coldly, and there was not much fluctuation in his heart.

She had been in captivity for three months, and the scene she had seen was much more disgusting than that.

Although Kutar is old, the majesty is not diminished, and it took half an hour to throw the woman away, and soon someone came in and dragged the woman down, and the woman hurriedly got up and begged for mercy, but Kutar did not relent, and directly let people drag her away.

The room was quiet, the smell of fish floated in the air, and suddenly sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Su Li: "Do you know who she is?" ”

"I don't know."

"She's a Kukodor woman."

It's just a woman, and she has no name and no share.

Su Li lowered her eyes and was silent, and suddenly continued: "My son is dead, and according to the rules, she belongs to me and my brothers. ”

This is indeed the rule of the Hu people, and as far as Su Li knows, Kutar has eight brothers.

Even though the Hu woman is physically stronger than the Yuanzhao woman, she may not be able to survive the destruction of nine people in one night.

"Do you know why you asked me to keep filial piety to my son?"

Suddenly asked again, Su Li grabbed the fanged hand and clenched it hard, before saying that to summon the soul of the undead, there is a requirement that if the person who summons the soul is the lover of the deceased, Su Li's outfit tonight is clearly the dress of a married woman of the Hu people.

"What does the king want?"

Su Li asked bluntly, and looked at Kutar without fear, Kutar squinted at Su Li, and his eagle-like eyes flashed for a moment.

He finally understood why his son wanted to let go of such a woman years ago.

Indeed, she was not quite like the others.

"I know, in your Yuanzhao, a woman's chastity is very important, you don't want to be possessed by a few men."

"Naturally, I don't want to."

"Then you'd better not play any tricks under my nose, and honestly guard my son!"

Su Li secretly breathed a sigh of relief, he deliberately acted this tonight, really to deter himself, and didn't want to let himself leak any news back to Yuanzhao.

The palm of his hand was pierced a little by the sharp teeth, Su Li let go a little, and said calmly: "The king of Yuanzhao promised me a weak woman to the king, completely ignoring my life and death, does the king think that I will have no brains to work for him?" ”

"I won't believe a word of what you say, and if you don't want to die too miserably, just keep it with a pious and grateful heart, understand?"

“……”

Su Li didn't speak, turned around and walked to the stove and knelt down, the faint blue firelight reflected on her face, and even her eyes were dyed with a light blue, a little weird.

She wasn't even afraid of death, so how could she become pious and grateful because of this threat? If there really are ghosts in the world, I'm afraid that I'll never want to be reincarnated as a human being!

At the same time, Kyoto, Kyo Zhao Yin Prefecture.

Lin Yueshuang sat in front of the dresser in light and soft silk pajamas, the bright bronze mirror reflected her beautiful face, she smiled with her eyebrows, and was in a very good mood with a box of condensation paste on her face.

She had just reached the end of her life, and she was the most delicate age in a woman's life, and her skin was as tender as freshly made tofu, without any wrinkles.

She enjoyed it so much that she couldn't get enough of it.

After a while, there was a knock on the door, and she answered the call, and the nurse immediately came in, leaned into her ear and whispered: "Miss, the county lord's mansion is really empty, and the ready-to-wear shop has been replaced by the young lady of the Zhang family and a guy named Zhang Wu are taking care of it." ”

"Got it."

Lin Yueshuang said happily, her eyes were bent into a beautiful crescent moon, but the nurse was in no hurry to leave, and she said the question in her heart: "Miss, how do you know that the county lord Su is not in Beijing?" ”

The wet nurse felt that her young lady's temperament had changed completely since she returned to Kyoto, and her wife asked her to interact more with the county lord of Nasu, so that she could get to know some high-ranking officials and nobles, but she refused to live or die.

Everyone knows that King Huaiyang has not married the princess yet, if he seizes this opportunity to get acquainted with the king of Huaiyang and become the princess of Huaiyang, he will enjoy endless glory and wealth for the rest of his life, why did the young lady suddenly not listen to his wife? Madame only has one daughter under her knees, can she still harm her?

"I know just know, what do you care so much!"

Lin Yueshuang said dissatisfiedly, and after wiping her face, she began to apply the balm for her hands.

The nurse was yelled at by her, her face was a little ugly, she was silent and didn't ask more, and conveyed Mrs. 's words: "Miss, Mrs. said that the weather is getting hotter, let you prepare, and go to Yunzhou for summer vacation in a few days......"

Before the nurse finished speaking, Lin Yueshuang suddenly brushed off the rouge gouache on a counter: "Go to Yunzhou to escape the summer?" I think I went to Yunzhou to sell my daughter! She just wanted me to climb into King Huaiyang's bed, why didn't she go by herself? ”

Lin Yueshuang's voice was very loud, and her words were so straightforward that the nurse turned pale with fright, and she trembled and comforted: "Miss, the prince is a royal prince and nobleman, don't say that!" ”

Never?

Why not?

Lin Yueshuang sneered, grabbed a stream of sideburns in her ear and played with it: "You go and tell my mother, I will find a way to get married, if she dares to interfere in my marriage again, don't blame me for breaking off the mother-daughter relationship with her!" ”

"Yes! Be! ”

The nurse was so frightened that she left the room in a panic, Lin Yueshuang looked at herself in the mirror, suppressed her anger a little bit, and showed a smile that she was determined to get.

After a few more moments, there was a soft knock at the door, and the man came in without knocking.

Looking back, it was a plain face, like a mother-in-law pouring night incense in the backyard, but those eyes were full of piercing coldness.

Lin Yueshuang felt a little chill in her back, and then she became angry: "Since you are here to beg me, it's best not to look at me with such eyes!" ”

The man didn't speak, but stepped forward quickly, raised his hand and put a silver needle on her throat, and said in a gloomy voice: "Who said I came to beg you? ”

Lin Yueshuang hadn't suffered much, as soon as the silver needle was pushed to her throat, she burst into tears in pain, but she was not afraid at all in her heart: "Qiao Qingsi, if you still want to know the Qiao clan, let me go immediately!" ”

Qiao clan domain, these four words have not been mentioned for many years.

Qiao Qingsi was stunned for a moment, but she didn't let go of the silver needle: "How do you know about the Qiao family?" ”

Obviously she is just a little girl of fifteen or sixteen, how can she know the secret of the Qiao family?

Back then, Qiao Qingsi defected from the Qiao clan and entered the WTO, and she had never heard of a precedent for people who came out to go back.

"It doesn't feel good to kill people all the time, doesn't it?"

Lin Yueshuang didn't answer the rhetorical question, the corners of her lips were raised high, she knew that she would win this negotiation effortlessly, because she knew where this person's death hole was, and it was too easy to hold it in the palm of her hand.

"What do you want to say?"

Qiao Qingsi asked, and the silver needle advanced a little.

Over the years, she has been used to pretending to be a ghost and playing with others in the palm of her hand, and now she is very sad to be coerced.

"I know where the sacred flower of your Qiao clan is, I can let you live like a normal person in the future."

Lin Yueshuang whispered, the voice was ethereal, and it took a long time to float into Qiao Qingsi's ears, and the next moment, she saw Lin Yueshuang take out a handkerchief, and the handkerchief was embroidered with the holy flower of the Qiao clan.

It's not as bewitching as she painted on the Lizhou mask before, the flowers are blue, the stamens are golden, and the surroundings will emit a bright light, which is very beautiful.

The silver needle was withdrawn, Qiao Qingsi's hand trembled uncontrollably, and she wanted to touch the silk handkerchief, but Lin Yueshuang quickly withdrew it, covering her neck and laughing arbitrarily: "Old thing, I won't be so kind to give things to you directly, if you want to go home, just be a dog by my side!" ”