【Chapter 26】The Immortal (I)

【Xiao Tang】

The city of the Seven Princes is extremely deep, even if I have followed him for more than 20 years, I have never seen too many expressions on his face, it is always a calm face, even the sword in front of him can not move him half a point.

The acquaintance with the Seven Princes is like a dream, entering in and waking up suddenly. My parents died when I was young, and I lived on the streets begging with my friends. It was winter, winter in Kyoto. In the winter in Kyoto, the dripping water turns into ice, and the winter night is cold. In winter, we will freeze to death on the streets without food at night, without a trace of cotton wool, although we know that no one will pity us, but we still want to live, maybe it is instinct. There were very few people on the streets, and we walked a long way and got nothing. We all know that begging is dishonorable and humiliating, but it is better than dying on the streets. When I was about to freeze, the lady in the shop gave me a hot bag. By the time the bun was placed on my hand that had been frozen to a blue purple, my hand was already unconscious. Before I could say those words with my usual surname, my aunt turned and left.

The buns are fragrant and delicious. The scent of leeks and eggs kept licking my already numb stomach. I clung to it, and my first thought was to eat it quickly, so as not to be seen by others, and I was so hungry that I couldn't take care of my partner who was just as hungry as me. Just as I was about to stuff the already cold bun into my mouth, a man who was an unknown number of years older than me came out of nowhere, skinny, dry hands with the strength of nowhere, and pushed me to the ground at once. The bun, [***] smashed on the ground, like an ice lump. The man grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth, gnawing and gnawing and gnawing, and the crumbs of the bloody bun fell down, and all around him was the sound of him grinding his teeth except for the howling of the cold wind.

I was stunned and stood there motionless. I didn't even hear the whistle of my partner not far away. The old beggar clutched the bun tightly in his hand as if he was afraid that I would snatch it, glared at me fiercely, and ran away without a trace. I remembered that the whistle was a signal for my partner to call me. I ran over and didn't see anything. I shouted his name over and over again in the cold wind and snow, and I collapsed from exhaustion, and I no longer had the strength to get up.

A pair of silk brocade cotton boots walked up to me, and when I looked up, I saw that it was a young man with clear eyebrows. He looked at me as if he was puzzled, as if he didn't understand why I was still lying on the ground in the midst of such a heavy snowstorm.

"Are you sleeping?" His words made me glare at him fiercely, the first image of the Seven Princes was a rich son who didn't know anything about the red dust, and if it sounded good, he was ignorant of the world, and if it didn't sound good, he was an idiot.

My head was so dizzy that I could have scolded him a few words, but I really didn't have the strength, so I could only try to get up again and again. I know that the children of rich families are just innocent curiosity about us, like curiosity about seeing something that they have never seen before, and once they understand who we are, all that is left is contempt and disdain. When I was young, my bones were very hard, and I spat out a few words with my bruise-purple trembling lips: "Don't worry about it, stupid! ”

Immediately, a tall figure appeared next to the boy, shouting angrily. The Seventh Prince seemed to have said something, and the voice paused for a moment, then raised a lot, and faintly heard words like 'he's just a beggar'.

"He's not a beggar, he's my servant." In the roar of the wind, the words struck heavily in my ears, muffling out all sounds.

I fainted.

From then on, I was no longer a raged beggar on the street. I thought that the son who was not rich or noble was just the son of an ordinary official eunuch, but he never thought that he was the prince that the emperor relied on the most.

I looked for a partner I hadn't seen since that snowy night, but I didn't hear from him. I heard that the snow was heavy that year, and some beggars killed people in groups because they had nothing to eat. So, that partner, in the end, I'm afraid it will never appear in the world again.

It may be a great honor for a commoner to follow a prince. But I was a little reluctant. It's not because he treats me badly, it's not because of my natural inferiority complex. It's just that I don't want to go to war, I don't want to kill people.

My parents were killed by the rebels, and I have an innate fear of war.

Although the Seventh Prince is young, he has long been tempered in the army. He sensed my reluctance, and he told me that he would not force me to stay with him, and that if I wanted to, he could always give me some money to do some small business, and I didn't have to choose to fight all the time.

But I chose to stay with him, and this stay is more than 20 years.

The Seventh Prince rarely smiled, probably because his mother Xian Shufei died early, and his father was very strict with him.

When I was one of his personal guards, the Seven Princes had his first fierce battle.

In the winter of the thirty-ninth year of the Great Zhou calendar, the Seven Kings rebelled against the Great Zhou and formed an alliance with the Great Food. Prince Hui led a large army to approach Longguan Yumen. The Seven Princes were not chaotic in the face of danger, and led 50,000 iron horsemen out of the border pass to meet the enemy.

I still remember the Seven Princes in front of the battle, sitting on a horse in white, still with a calm face, quietly looking at the battlefield stained red by blood. Behind him is a handsome banner that inspires the officers and men of the whole army to fight bravely to kill the enemy. As far as the eye can see, there are black and oppressive Hui cavalry all around, the former soldiers are desperately resisting, and from time to time there are screaming soldiers who fall off their horses, and are trampled into meat by the horses' hooves in an instant. Although more enemies fell, the enemy was like a monster with a giant hand, and in an instant, all the wounds on his body were smoothed out, and he rushed forward again and again without fear of death.

He had already been told that the commander of the Great Zhou was the commander of the Great Zhou, and the red-eyed soldiers who were stimulated by the reward of 10,000 taels of gold poured in like a tide. A stray arrow pierced the sleeve of the prince's robe, a sharp arrow with a few barbs, tearing a long tear open in the sleeve. My voice trembled, even if that arrow pierced my chest, I wouldn't feel terrible anymore, "Your Highness, the front army can't resist it, you can withdraw first." ”

The Seventh Prince was still so calm, glanced at his sleeves, and then set his eyes on the battlefield, without even moving his eyebrows. With a cold and arrogant face, the slightly thin figure refused to take half a step back. At dusk, reinforcements arrived belatedly. The next day, the emperor feasted the ministers, interrupted the military report of the son who was silently fighting for him, and waved his hand impatiently to let him retreat, so that Mei Ji danced, as if winning this battle was not what he expected, and ignored the biggest hero of the Seven Princes. Even the slightest expression that he usually had was pushed back to his face. On the contrary, the Seventh Prince remained silent, with his legs on the side, quietly drinking the cup of turbid wine.

The exploits of the Seven Princes made all the princes very jealous, and even the Eighth Prince, who was born to his mother, was very jealous. But seeing that the emperor didn't like him as much as before, those princes who knew how to eat and drink all day were really relieved. Even so, in front of the emperor, there are people who continue to slander the taciturn Seven Princes in Pingyue. The prince is strong and unwilling to open the door in his heart, so that people can see the sourness and helplessness inside. He would only silently lock the emperor's disdain and everyone's mockery one by one, and not let them show. Just when the Seven Princes were defeated again, the residents of the sixteen states on the border all cheered and celebrated. His father, the emperor, the man who had been having fun with his concubines, was furious when he received the secret report, saying that he had the intention of usurping the throne. If it weren't for the opposition of the generals who led the troops and hundreds of thousands of soldiers, his head would have been presented to the emperor by his brother in a gold plate. Sad, he finally left the court of deceit and went to the place at the foot of the Tianshan Mountain. A thatched hut, a few ancient books, and a few coarse tea and light meals are all he has in life. Occasionally, I will go to the mirror lake under the mountain for a walk, according to legend, under the background of the bright moon, the lake water is as clear as the moon, bright as a mirror, there will be a beloved woman out of the lake, and dance with the flying flowers, just like Chang'e in the cold palace, and like the fairy who fell into the red dust.

The Seven Princes liked this legend very much, but the legend is a legend after all, and it will not become a reality. Unexpectedly, I was wrong. That's when I realized that a kind of fate is a legend.