In the afternoon of this day, the ship approached Xinzheng. Seeing that there were more cars, horses, and pedestrians on both sides of the strait, Ah Quinoa became restless and could not sleep. I could only sit on the wooden couch where he was resting and let him talk to my stomach and the little sprouts in my belly. The five-month-old little bud is very fond of quinoa, and when she speaks, he will tickle my belly a few times.

"Brother, when you get off the boat tomorrow, there will be a lot of people, if you are afraid, hold my hand, okay?"

Quinoa nodded, and put her hand out of the wolf fur on her body, and her two fingers clasped the back of my hand hard. I smiled softly and held his hand tightly in my palm.

Ah Quinoa is older than me, and Ah Niang and Zhao Ji are both tall people, so as a man, he should have looked taller than ordinary people, but he has not seen the light of day for 20 years, and his body is thin and weak, like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy. Every time I get along with him, I can't help but have an illusion that I have become a mother, and the person next to me is not a brother, but a child I owe for 20 years.

"If you want to sleep, just sleep for a while, I'm here with you." I gently patted Quinoa on the back.

Ah Quinoa shrank beside me and said in a very low voice, "Daddy has prepared a few gauze hats for me, you can help me find one later." My appearance scared Mr. Yanagishita into tears, and if there is a baby playing in the water at the ferry tomorrow, I am afraid that I will be scared out of illness. ”

"Brother......

"It's okay, I'm not sad, I'm just afraid of scaring others." Quinoa glanced up at me, then hurriedly avoided my gaze.

The tip of my nose was sour, and I said distressedly: "Who is the thief, how can he be scared and cry by you." There must be other reasons for him to cry, and my brother must not think nonsense. ”

"Hmm." Quinoa nodded, for a long time, and then asked worriedly, "Sakasa...... You're going to help me figure it out, right? ”

"Yes, don't worry, I'll look for it later, find two tops, and I'll wear them with you tomorrow."

"Okay." Quinoa was finally relieved, but my heart was crumbled. When I was young, I took on the name of a mountain ghost for many years just because I gave birth to a pair of eyes that were different from ordinary people, and now Ah Quinoa's face and body don't know how many strange eyes and how many unwarranted and ruthless speculations from the world. The thief is a person who lives very clearly and freely, and he will cry for Quinoa, perhaps because he has always had a debt hidden in his heart for many years. But he didn't owe us, he saved A-Niang, saved Aquinoa, and saved me, he is a "wicked person" who strayed into the chess game, but he is the person we want to thank the most...... "Brother, is the person who rescued you from Zhifu a thief?" ”

"It's the thief and your father—" Ah Su sat at my feet with a miserable white face,* and said, "Is there still Du Ruogan?" Give me one more! Are you people in Handan City born with no dizziness? ”

"He also went? No wonder he had a wound as long as that long on his right arm......"

"You see, can you still stay up until today before asking? You are really father and daughter! Ah Su lowered his head and turned over a piece of sun-dried Du Ruogen in my pouch and hurriedly took it into his mouth, and after a while, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"On the day I was locked up by Zhao Ying, Wuxian should have gone to Zhifu, why did you save Ah Quinoa in the end? Where did the shirtless go? Is the mechanism map of Gong Yining called the thief stealing it? ”

"Gong Yining's organ map is here, as for why it's here, and why Zhao Wuxian couldn't rescue Ah Quinoa, I can't tell you, and I shouldn't tell you about it."

"Why? Do you want me to ask 'Daddy'? Yes, since he plans not to lie to me or hide from me in the future, he should always tell me the truth. I sneered and got up, Ah Su grabbed my hand and said, "You will know about this sooner or later, but you shouldn't listen to us, it's not fair to that person." ”

"Who's that man?"

"This is the mechanism map of Gong Yining, you can take a look at it again when you have time, if you can see something, guess something, that person will come in a few days, you should be mentally prepared." Ah Su tore open the placket of his shirt, took out a pale yellow thin leather roll from his chest and handed it to me.

"Who's coming?"

"See for yourself!" Ah Su stuffed the thin skin roll into my hand, and I was about to ask again, but the boat board under my feet suddenly shook twice, Ah Su hurriedly helped me steady, frowned, and said, "Why does it seem that the ship has docked?" I'll go out and have a look first. She let go of my hand and staggered out, and I turned to look at Quinoa again, who had closed her eyes and fallen asleep.

After a while, Ah Su didn't come back, Zhao Ji came, and he told me in person, saying that we would not go to Xinzheng anymore, and everyone would get off the boat here. He leaned over and carried away the sleeping quinoa, and I walked out of the wooden shed that had been put on the board of the boat with my stomach in my arms.

The big ship has docked, and the boatmen have already erected the wooden bridge for disembarking.

Towards the beginning of winter, there are still large snow-white reed flowers blooming on the bank of the river, and behind the reeds is a flat gray-yellow field, and a few tall red maples are blazing red on the field. I looked up again, and in the distance, near the foot of the mountain, there seemed to be a few low palaces. Where is this? Uncle Zheng's palace?

The group disembarked, and soon several carriages drove up to them.

"Where are we going?" I asked Zhao Ji.

"This is Zheng Bo's palace outside the capital, and there are four warm soups in the palace, which is beneficial to quinoa's recuperation." Zhao Ji put Ah Quinoa into the carriage and took the reins from the coachman, "You and Ah Su are in the same car, get off the car later, don't say more." ”

"Uncle Zheng is not in the capital, here?" I turned my head to look at the palace in the distance.

"Uncle Zheng is not here, and he will only arrive the day after tomorrow." Zhao Ji took a deep look at me, pulled the reins of the horse, and drove away.

"Let's get in the car too!" Ah Su walked up to me.

"Turning to the Farewell Palace, you know?"

"Uncle Zheng thinks the scenery here is good, so he changed his mind temporarily." Asu helped me into the car. She naturally knew that Zhao Ji had arranged for us to live here, and as for why Zhao Ji didn't tell her the truth, she must have guessed the reason.

Zheng is a small country, Zheng Guo's palace room is naturally not comparable to Qi and Jin if it is gorgeous and atmospheric, but this palace is built on the mountain, the Xuan window is hidden, and the secluded room is also exquisite. From the palace gate to the inner courtyard, the palace maids who guide everyone all the way are wearing bamboo blue fine linen short clothes, tied with a yellow light skirt, when moving, the wind blows the skirt, all of them are elegant like immortals. But at this time, the cool autumn has passed, the cold winter is coming, although the palace maids are beautiful, they are all frozen to snow white when they look closely, and their lips coated with peach-colored lipstick can't stop trembling as soon as they speak.

"Winter and summer clothes. I didn't expect Zheng Nu to love beauty to such a point. "When the palace maids closed the door and left, I couldn't help but sigh.

Ah Su poured herself a cup of hot water and said with a smile: "It's not Zheng Nu who loves beauty, it's Zheng Bo who loves beauty, and Kong Ji is jealous." ”

"Kong Ji, Zheng Bo married Mrs. Ru from Weiguo back then?"

"Yes, none of the female relatives of the Kong clan are easy to mess with. Zheng Bo lived with this Kong Ji in another palace in June, but Zheng Bo left Kong Ji and fell in love with a rained maid, and brought it back when he returned to the capital. Kong Ji was angry and resented that the palace maids had seduced Uncle Zheng with their light clothes and thin skirts, so he deliberately asked the palace maids to button down the winter clothes of this group of palace maids. I think that if we hadn't come this time, I am afraid that this group of palace maids would all have frozen to death. ”

"You know Uncle Zheng's family affairs very well! Could it be that this is the daughter of Kong Ji who is going to marry into Qi this time? I said as I lifted the bamboo curtain and walked into the back room.

Ah Su smiled and followed: "There is a concubine born to Mrs. Jun, and her daughter is at most a right wife (1). ”

"Mrs. Zheng Guojun has only one daughter, and she is a notoriously sick child, as long as this daughter of Kong Ji is the right wife, I am afraid that she will be Mrs. Qi in less than two years."

"Whether it's Mrs. Qi or not, it has nothing to do with us. After so long on the boat, you are also tired, don't you sleep with Sister for a while? Ah Su climbed onto the bed in the inner room and patted the mattress on the inside and said to me.

I saw that her eyes were blue, and I couldn't bear it, so I untied my bun, took off her robe, and got on the bed: "I don't sleep, and I'm afraid you won't dare to sleep." You are so worried, do you want me to tie our hands with a rope again? ”

Ah Su smiled, she squeezed my hand, closed her eyes and said, "Si'er is in Xinzheng, I have already sent someone to pick her up, you can wait patiently for a few more days to see her." ”

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, as long as you stay here and raise the baby, I can't thank you enough. After all these years, the two of us are still the same, stay with you, don't mention how tired I am these days......" Ah Su's voice became lower and lower, and finally only the sound of heavy breathing remained.

I looked away from her face and lowered my head to pull the warm human skin scroll from my arms. Twisting, folding, hooking, and straightening, all kinds of intricately designed mechanisms instantly appeared in front of me.

Xiao Ya'er, Xiao Ya'er, don't sleep yet, let's find out where your father went first?