Shen Ruoyu fell asleep for a few days and nights, and developed a high fever. He woke up a few times in between, and dimly felt as if he was lying on a boat in the middle of the water. There were people around him who were always watching and watching him, wiping his face, feeding him water, checking his pulse, applying medicine, and changing ice packs from time to time. He accepts everything completely passively, without resistance, without questioning, without consciousness.

He fell asleep for a long, long time. At first, it was purely groggy, and it was as uncomfortable as a fire all over his body. Later, the discomfort gradually subsided, and the body became a little cooler, and the pain was relieved a lot. He was exhausted, and fell into a deep sleep of consciousness and no dreams.

He slept like a dead man for a long time, and consciousness slowly returned. There was a faint sound of the piano in the distance. Then, the sound of the piano got closer and clearer. The whole body is light and relaxed; He moved slightly; A sharp stabbing pain in the chest. He groaned in a daze.

A cold, hard thing pressed to his lips. A cool liquid flowed into his mouth, moistening his smoky throat like a sweet spring. Shen Ruoyu gradually woke up, his mind was still groggy, he couldn't open his eyes, and just whispered softly:

"Thank you......"

The sound of the piano stopped abruptly. It was as if footsteps were walking to the bed. A hand caught his pulse, paused for a moment, and touched his forehead again. Shen Ruoyu fainted again.

I don't know how long it took for him to suddenly come to his senses and open his eyes. The melodious sound of the piano passed through the hall like a cool mountain breeze, but this time it was far away outside the house. All around is bamboo, the roof, the walls - full of bamboo. He touched the bed under him, which was also cool and cool bamboo skin. He remembered what had happened to him, took a deep breath, and moved carefully again, but there was no longer a sharp stabbing pain in his chest. He tentatively rolled over shallowly, then leaned against the bamboo wall beside the bed, and slowly sat up cautiously.

Still a little stiff and sore; But compared to the previous time when he was in prison and escaped by the river, his ribs have improved greatly.

He sat on the bed, looking around him, not knowing where he was. He vaguely remembered that he had escaped from the place where it was obviously a lonely house in the wilderness, but it was disguised as a prison in Xiangyang; I remember that I fled to the river, but was caught by the Jinyi guard; The rest of the memory was only foggy, and there were faint sounds and shadows shaking, as if they had been floating in the water, and they could no longer remember the specifics.

He sat for a while, and the sound of the piano outside stopped, followed by the murmuring of water and the sound of the mountains: the whispers of the wind blowing through the woods, and the chirping of birds and cicadas.

A man walked into the house. He turned his head and saw that it was a small Taoist priest, and when he saw him, he saluted respectfully and distantly:

"Master, please ask the donor to go to a story."

After saying that, the little Taoist priest walked to the couch and respectfully stretched out his hand to help Shen Ruoxiao. Shen Ruoyu shook his head, leaned against the wall, tried it carefully, slowly stood up, and took a deep breath soothingly. He asked a few questions, but the little Taoist priest did not answer clearly, and only repeated that the master had an invitation. Shen Ruoyu was helpless, so he had to follow the little Taoist out of the house.

The little Taoist priest was silent all the way, just walking with him. The road didn't go far. The bamboo house is surrounded by mountains; The mountain roads are all plank roads made of ancient trees built in the mountains. The peaks are gentle and lush, like a natural barrier, enclosing this beautiful valley in the middle, with lush trees and green grass; A clear mirror-like expanse of clear blue water flows quietly in the valley. The mountain breeze is gentle and pleasant, with the aroma of forest grass and earth, and the sound of flowing water is pleasantly harmonized. The deep turquoise water reflected the distant sky above, clear blue and sunny, with silky clouds flowing through. The birds in the mountains and forests are constantly singing; The cicadas chirp can be heard from time to time, but you can't feel the unbearable heat of summer. The whole valley is like August, and the autumn is crisp.

The little Taoist priest took Shen Ruoliao along the water's edge around a short section of gentle ancient wooden plank road. The blue water turned a corner, and around a lush mountainside, I saw that the water in front of me was covered by a layer of white mist; The fog was so thick that it spread low across the water, and spread all the way down to the opposite hill, with only the roof of a grass hut looming above; On this side of the water, the plank road under his feet winds forward a little, then he suddenly turns and burrows into the thick fog along the surface of the water, disappearing. The slow and clear sound of the ancient sound sounded across the bank again, piercing through the dense fog and drifting down the water, instantly resonating throughout the valley.

The little Taoist priest stopped and said:

"The master is in the grass pavilion on the other side, and the donor is please."

With that, he turned around and walked back the way he had come without looking back.

Shen Ruoyu watched him leave, a little dazed; The simple and far-reaching sound of the piano was still waving, but his heart was quiet, and he did not feel the slightest uneasiness. He continued along the boardwalk, turned onto the water, and walked into a cloud of white mist.

He was gone for only a few moments, and the fog gradually thinned; The surrounding vision gradually became transparent, and soon he saw the grass hut in front of him, but under the lid was a transparent water pavilion, with his back to the green mountains, calmly exploring the ground, sitting quietly on the clear water. In the pavilion, you can vaguely see an old Taoist sitting in a brocade hair, wearing a wide purple robe, and is intently plucking the strings of his fingertips. The ethereal sound continued to resound on the mountain waters.

Shen Ruoyu walked up to the grass pavilion, stopped behind the old road, and waited quietly.

The old man was not in a hurry, and continued to play the guqin in front of him peacefully until the end of the song, when he stopped and meditated for a while; After the aftermath dissipated, he picked up the dust on the side of the piano, turned around, and faced Shen Ruoxiao.

Deep eyebrows, thick eyebrows like a sword. His eyes were like electricity, but they were extremely clear, which made Shen Ruoliao immediately feel relieved and trusted, and a natural respect unconsciously arose from the bottom of his heart. The old Taoist beard was as elegant as a fairy, with a pleasant and kind smile on his face, looked at Shen Ruoliao, and opened his mouth to greet:

"Looks like your injuries are much better? How does it feel? A simple activity is good for recovery, but you still need to focus on recuperation for now, don't be in a hurry to resume activities, and don't be greedy for more than you can do. ”

Shen Ruoyu saluted and said: "Secular junior, thanks to the rescue of the Taoist Chief, he was able to pick up his life, but he disturbed the Daoist Chief's tranquility because of this, I am really ashamed." ”

He said it sincerely. The old man smiled slightly and said, "When your father was alive, he never said such a thing. You and him are two completely different people. ”

Shen Ruoyu's eyes widened in surprise: "My father??" ――The younger generation was rude and did not dare to ask for the name of the Taoist? It seems - you know more than I do. ”

"I do know more than you do." The old man smiled. "Sit down, let's talk slowly."

When he sat down, Lao Dao spoke:

"My name, even if I don't tell you, you must have guessed it. The poor surname is Wang, and the single name is a shocking word, and he is also called Danzi; Speaking of which, I have a lot of fate with you. ”

Shen Ruoliao paused. "The Taoist chief is the head of Wudang Mountain, and he is also a real person?"

Wang was shocked and said, "It's the poor road." ”

Shen Ruoyu pondered for a moment and said hesitantly: "If the legend is true, it was the predecessor who gave me my father's Autumn Wind Sword; It was also you who were ordered by the first emperor to lure my father and mother to Wudang Mountain, and let the 100,000 imperial army encircle and suppress my father? ”

Wang smiled in surprise.

"There is no wind and no waves; Most of the legends in this world are true. ”

Shen Ruoyu was silent for a long time, and asked in a low voice:

"Senior, you and my father...... Is it familiar? What kind of person is he? ”

"Very familiar; We have an extraordinary relationship. Wang was shocked and said: "Because, the process of my first encounter with your father is the origin of the autumn wind." It was thirty-three years ago, and it was here, in this grass pavilion where you are now sitting, that I gave the autumn breeze to your father. At the same time, I took one of his promises. ”

Shen Ruoxiao only felt that his heart suddenly opened:

"It turns out that the story told by the uncle is true! So, this must be the Wuling Luoying Valley? ”

Wang shook his head and smiled, "It's not the first time I've heard this story; Legends are mostly true, but people often like to tamper with details and demonize or deify real stories and characters. The place of Luoying Valley does not exist; This is not Wuling either. This is Wudang Mountain, Xiaoyao Valley. Your father, as far as I know, has never been to Wuling in his life. ”

He looked at Shen Ruoyu's blank face and asked:

"Do you know, what is the name of the flowing water in this Xiaoyao Valley?"

Shen Ruoyu shook his head.

Huandan Zhenren preached:

"The name of this water is the Sword River. Wudang Mountain has been handed down from generation to generation, and this river is the result of Emperor Zhenwu wielding his sword to split the ground. In the past, Empress Shansheng chased five hundred heavenly soldiers and generals to Wudang Mountain, wanting to persuade her son who was cultivating here to return home. Zhenwu categorically refused; Because Empress Shansheng grabbed his robe and held on, she drew her sword and split her clothes, and slashed the ground with her sword, making a sword river to isolate her mother on the other side. Poor Dao has been practicing in Wudang since he was a child, and he believes in this legend; It wasn't until thirty-three years ago that I stumbled upon a sword in the waters of this sword river. There is another legend in the world that the sword of the autumn wind was forged by the real people of the Dan Dynasty, and the stones of the Yingxi water were mined into gold, and the frost, mist and dew of the autumn wind were collected and tempered under the moonlight on the night of August 16. In fact, the autumn breeze was not created by me, but picked up by me in this current. ”

"Picked up?" Shen Ruoyu is incredible.

"Yes; It was the night of August 16, and the roundest and largest moon of the year hung overhead, shining brightly. I was by the Sword River, and I saw something in the water that shone like the moon, so I picked it out and found that it was a beautiful sword. It's the autumn wind. ”

Shen Ruoyu was silent for a moment, frowned, and said with a smile: "It seems to be ...... A mythical story like that. ”

Huandan Zhenren smiled faintly: "You don't believe it? Or not; Your father didn't believe it back then. Perhaps, it is precisely because the truth is unbelievable that the world will imagine making up even more bizarre stories, so that myths become myths completely. However, the autumn breeze is real. I fell in love with him at first sight; Because of the autumn wind, it also made me doubt that the true origin of the name of the Sword River is not in the legend of Zhenwu, but in this sword. ”

"So—why did you give the sword to my father instead of keeping it for yourself?"

The king exclaimed: "Whoever a sword belongs to and who it does not belong to is not based on whose hand he holds. I've tried the autumn wind; Such a peerless sword, I naturally want to have him by my side. But he and I are not of the same mind. Holding it in my hand and waving my sword, I could feel it clearly. But when your father first used him, the sword was like it was on him, and he couldn't tell the difference between them. Your father is a fastidious man with a high vision, and if the autumn wind is not his heart, he will not be willing to give everything for him. ”

Shen Ruoyu hesitated for a moment and asked, "I heard that you promised him - or, according to my third uncle, what he himself promised, and the conditions he received - he could get the heart of the most beautiful woman in the world; Later, he had my mother? ”

Wang Zhen smiled: "Not bad." However, this is not a miracle, nor is it my ability to predict some uncertainties. All I know is the autumn wind. I know him, I know what kind of swordsman he is worthy, and what kind of beauty he is. All the judgments I make are from the autumn wind. Including what your father promised me, he will willingly give everything he has, just to get the autumn breeze, and will never regret it. There are no uncertain prophets in the world, there are only yin and yang, and karma - the autumn wind is worth all the price. And then it all came true, right? ”

"I ...... I don't really understand ......"

Wang Jing smiled faintly, stood up, walked to the edge of the pavilion, faced the murmuring blue water in the mist of white mist, and the green mountains on all sides, and said leisurely:

"At this moment in your heart, there must be three things that are confused and entangled, and you cannot let go of them. You want to ask, but you can't do it. When you sort out these three things, you will be able to understand what I said earlier and understand the autumn wind. ”

“…… Three things? ”

"First and foremost, your father's past. In the past eighteen years, no one has ever told you the truth in full detail. Madame Chengtou, suddenly you hear everything, absurd, cruel and merciless, and you refuse to accept it, and rebuke it to your face as a fabricated slander. But deep down, you are miserable and want me to give you an answer to prove that everything you have heard is a lie, otherwise you will not be at ease. ”

Shen Ruoyu turned his face away and looked at the water outside the pavilion.

"Senior, Madame, I never said anything about the city, how did you know so much? And how do you know who I am? He asked faintly.

Wang looked back and smiled mysteriously:

"It's not just Madame," he said secretively, "and I also helped you get the autumn wind out of the Han water." ”

Shen Ruoliao was shocked. Seeing the incredulous expression on his face, Wang shook his head kindly and smiled:

"If there are few, most of the things in this world seem to be chaotic and random and unrelated; In fact, everything in the world is closely related, and there is no two people who are completely unrelated, and no two things that are completely unrelated. I'm telling you this, you are scolding me in your heart for being cunning, I can see it. Everything in the city of Madame was premeditated, you know; Since it was a premeditated thing, it is not surprising that a seemingly unrelated outsider knows everything about it. I know that you received a secret envoy from King Yan, went to Chengdu to meet the King of Shu secretly, and gave him a mysterious thing; I know what details you've heard, Madame; I know that you pretended to cross the river to get the secret letter of the king of Shu, and took the opportunity to throw yourself into the river to destroy the letter, so you lost the autumn wind and injured your ribs; It was I who picked up the autumn breeze from the Han River; I am the one who stayed by the river in the middle of the night, and when you fell into the water, I rescued you into the boat. The person who hurt you didn't know that I was secretly accompanying you all the way, until finally in the middle of the night, when he saw me appear, he was also taken aback. I didn't know who he was, but from his expression, I could see that he obviously recognized me, so I didn't stop you, let me take you away, all the way up the river, all the way up to Wudang. I have a promise in advance, and I can't tell you more details. But you and I have only just met for the first time, and as soon as you came up, you asked me if I had been asked by the first emperor to lure your parents to the trap of the court of Wudang Mountain. I also answer you now, that there is no falsehood in every word of everything you have heard in the city of Lady. ”

Shen Ruoyu was silent for a long time, did not look up, still looked sideways at the water outside the pavilion, and said in a low voice:

"In that case, teach me how to trust my predecessors again?"

Wang Jing smiled faintly: "You don't need to believe me, you just need to believe in yourself." The biggest doubt in your heart now is not me, or your father, or even King Yan; And being on your own. You don't know if the choices you make are right or wrong, and you suspect that you are deceiving and fooling yourself. After all, no one has ever forced you to make any choices, your father has never told you that he is a righteous man, and King Yan has never forced you to trust him and do things for him. Throughout your life, you will continue to encounter similar situations, which will make you doubt the choices you have made again and again, doubt yourself. Everybody will. It's just that not everyone is like you, who deeply doubt themselves and have strong beliefs to stick to themselves. In fact, you can completely give up and overturn the past, hand over the secret letter of the King of Shu, and confess the message of the King of Yan; But you chose to insist on believing that you would rather throw yourself into the river twice and seriously injure yourself. Have you ever wondered why? ”

Shen Ruoyu was a little upset.

"I don't know," he said, "at least—I can't tell...... If I choose to stick to something, I'm afraid it's not believing. On the one hand, I have a little contact with and understanding of Yanwang, and on the other hand, I have never known Jinyiwei in my life and have never had a good impression. I may have been deceiving myself that I knew King Yan, but I didn't know anything about his true colors; But if that were the case, then it would be even less likely that I would trust a stranger with whom I had never interacted and who seemed to me to be hostile. You say I made the choice; What I really felt at the time was that I had no choice but to go. ”

Wang Jing walked up to him, sat down, and looked at him quietly.

"Ruoxiao, do you know that I was entrusted by the first emperor to write a letter to your father, inviting him to come to Wudang Mountain to climb high and reminisce on the Double Ninth Festival. Your father was invited to come, but when we met, he told me that he knew the movements of the imperial army and that he knew that there would be a catastrophe when he came to Wudang Mountain. I asked him, "Why do you have to come?" He doesn't have any obligation to me, he can take your mother and go back to Yanshan directly, and get away with it. Your father replied that if he went out into the heavens, the court would hunt him down. If he could not defeat the Emperor completely, he would never be at peace. Therefore, he had no choice and had to fight. Later results, prove your father's choice; From then on, the first emperor never dared to send a soldier to Yanshan to disturb him, and what he was most afraid of was that your father stepped out of Yanshan. ”

"But my dad didn't win;" Shen Ruoyu said gloomily, "He escaped by luck and fled back to Yanshan, and never went out of the mountain again, it is better to say that he was also defeated by the army of the first emperor, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to come out." ”

Wang smiled and said, "You are right; Ying Tian's official report has always described and summarized the decisive battle of the year. ”

"However, what Jin Yiwei told me is the version you just said."

Wang Jing smiled contemplatively, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said, "I'm just afraid that if you go to the capital in the future, the Jinyi guard there will tell you another version." ”

Shen Ruoyu looked at him in confusion: "Aren't all Jinyi guards from the capital?" ”

Wang Jing didn't answer anymore, shook his head with a smile, returned to the original question, and said lightly:

"You already know the truth about your father, and it is your own choice to accept it or not. The second thing on your mind is the same. King Yan knows all of your background, there is no doubt about it. He began to pay attention to you as early as when you were born. Whether he believes you or not, only King Yan himself knows. After all, he never said that he didn't know your father, he didn't know anything about your background; Whether you should trust him or not is only your own choice. ”

Shen Ruoyu's chest was bored and depressed; The wound began to become heavy. He said softly:

"Senior-I'm a little tired, can you talk about this another day?"

Wang looked at the pale face of his face with a little apology, and smiled soothingly:

"Of course; Your wounds are not healed, not just on your body. You have to recuperate here, what we have is time; When you're healed, it's not too late to talk. Go back; It's time to give you your medicine. ”

"Senior," Seeing Wang Jing stand up, Shen Ruoyu opened his mouth to stop him, blushing a little.

"And the third thing—"

He wanted to speak, but he stopped. Wang was shocked to dust off his clothes, and said calmly:

"The autumn wind is hanging over my Nanyan Dragon Head Stone at this moment. When you're healed and you understand what I said earlier, you can take it away at any time. ”