I fried the small fish caught by Ah Yu, boiled the rice soup, and after eating, it was already time to fall asleep. Ah Yu and his husband hid in one grass hut, and Wu Shirt hid in another. I looked at the burning wood in the fire, and lay down silently, curling up my frozen hands and feet.

I didn't sleep all night, and the past swam in my heart like a cold snake. When the flames in front of him turned into a pile of cold ashes, when the dark purple sky light lit up again from the east, the grass hut remained cold and silent.

Along the way, I learned to build my own grass huts, chop firewood, and set up my own traps. But my independence makes Wuxian even more gloomy. He rarely spoke to me, and every time he spoke, he would find fault with me that didn't matter, or assign me something I couldn't do at all. Perhaps, he was waiting for me to give in, for me to fall at his feet, to cry out for the pain of my absence, for how I longed for his mercy again. But I wouldn't do that, because I knew that if I did fall on my knees in front of him, he would just leave more coldly.

Half a month later, our ship arrived in Zhengguo. A heavy snowstorm trapped us in a place called Huaicheng. Huaicheng is a small city, its pavilion has only a dozen rooms, and it is not yet dark, and it is already crowded with people hiding from the wind and snow.

"Master, why does the person drinking over there look like Dr. Kong of the country?" Walking into the door of the pavilion, Ah Yu pointed to a table of guests in the corner of the lobby and whispered.

I looked in the direction of his finger and saw a middle-aged man in his forties, with a wide forehead and a big nose and a sad face, sitting among the noisy drinkers. To the left of the man sat an old woman in a green turban, her face could not be seen clearly with her head down, but her shrunken shoulders showed her discomfort and embarrassment at the moment.

"Find a place to sit down first, and I'll go and have a look." Wuxian walked towards the middle-aged man, and as soon as the man saw him, he immediately dropped his wine bowl and grabbed his sword.

Ah Yu immediately reached out to draw his scimitar.

"Don't worry, Kong Kui is not your master's opponent." I pressed Ah Yu's hand and turned my face to look at the three people in the corner.

The hall was too noisy, and I couldn't hear what Wuxian said to Kong Kui, but I saw the expression on Kong Kui's face changed from initial horror to anger, and then showed sadness.

"Girl, this Doctor Kong is not his grandfather in Diqiu, why did he come to Zheng Guo?" Ah Yu grabbed a seat and sat down.

I glanced at Kong Kui and sighed: "When the minister meets the evil king, I am afraid that he will escape from the country." ”

The shirtless words quickly confirmed my thoughts.

It turned out that after Kuai Yu became the king of Wei, he killed a large number of doctors who opposed him as the king. Kong Kui was originally Kuai's nephew, and he made great contributions in the struggle for the throne, he originally thought that Kuai's murderous knife would not be raised on his head, but he knew that Kuaichen held a banquet in the palace this summer, and actually tricked him into the palace to drink on the grounds of reward, and wanted to poison him to death at the banquet. Fortunately, he got a secret report from his relatives, so he escaped from Diqiu with his old mother, wife and children overnight.

Wuxian's brows have never been loosened since he saw Kong Kui. I knew that he was worried about the outcome of Youliang's envoy, but I was worried that our trip to the Song Kingdom would be in vain.

The snowstorm in Huaicheng blew for eight days, and the river outside was frozen, and the road surface was frozen. Everyone in a hall wanted to leave, but none of them could leave.

It's still winter, but I have to pick the fruits of autumn. A crazy idea of the Marquis of Jin finally caused me to stay in such a strange post station, cold and old.

Thinking about how fast this year has passed, the days of flipping through the secret files in the "Lock Heart Building" seem to be just yesterday, but in a blink of an eye, it is the end of the year.

A year ago today, I found two records of the Zhi clan sending people to visit the Lu Guogong clan in the "Lock Heart Building".

One was written in the twenty-third year of King Zhou, and one was written in the twenty-fifth year of King Zhou.

In the twenty-third year of King Zhou, Zhiyao's grandfather asked the talented Gongyi to build the secret room where A-Niang was imprisoned under his undercover, and as a "disguise", he asked a person named Ning from the Gongyi clan to build a "seven-incense car" for Shi Mo. In the twenty-fifth year of King Zhou, that is, in the spring of the second year after A-Niang was rescued from the secret room by a thief, the young Zhiyao personally went to Lu State, found Gongyi Ning, who built the "Qixiang Car" that year, and built another "Qibao Car" and gave it to the Marquis of Jin.

The timing of Zhi Yao's visit to Lu was so coincidental that I couldn't help but suspect that Gong Yining, the builder of the "Qibao Car", who was once famous but then suddenly disappeared, actually built a secret room for the Zhi family, and this secret room held the medicine man I had been looking for for many years.

I haven't seen the "Qibao Car" of the Marquis of Jin, but Shi Mo's "Qixiang Car" is parked in the backyard of the Taishi Mansion. Shi Mo didn't like the car, and he didn't like it to be mentioned in front of him. After I returned to Xinjiang, I tried to ask him about the whereabouts of Gong Yining, the builder of the car, but he sent him away without knowing a word. Later, I asked him again for the car, but I also sternly refused. All the rumors tell me that Gong Yining is dead, but I don't believe it. I asked someone to send another letter to the Lu State, asking Duanmu Ci to help me find out the whereabouts of Gong Yining.

Four months after the letter was sent, I received the news of Confucius's death. In the best days of spring in April, the stubborn old man left this world that he cared for, was expected by him, but always abandoned him. Thousands of miles away, I can only worship the East in the autumn breeze of the Jin Kingdom, and I know very well that within three years, Duanmu Ci, who is married to the tomb of the master and guards filial piety, will not reply to me again.

Lu and Song are adjacent to each other, maybe after meeting Song Taishi Ziwei, I can go to Lu to worship Confucius, meet Duanmu Ci by the way, and then personally inquire about Gongyi Ning in Qufu City. In this way, I don't have to go back to Xinjiang with Wuxian in the same car and boat.

I was thinking about it when I suddenly heard footsteps in the hallway outside the door. "Guest, your hot water has been delivered." There was a knock on my door.

When I opened the door, there was a servant standing outside the inn, who bowed to me and handed me a black clay jug.

"Little brother sent the wrong one, right? I haven't asked you for hot water yet! ”

"This is sent by the one-handed guest downstairs." The servant replied respectfully.

"Oh, that ......," I said, taking the jug to thank you, but the servant who delivered the water had already turned and gone downstairs.

Tonight is the end of the year, and Wuxian seems to have gone drinking with Kong Kui. Ah Yu just said that no matter whether it snows tomorrow or not, we will leave for Shangqiu. Kong Kui took his old mother, wife and children this time, and he also wanted to take refuge in the Song Kingdom. Wuxian planned to rush ahead of him, and before Song Gong knew the situation of Weiguo, he would first find out what Song Gong meant about the alliance.

Outside the post station, the wind and snow were blowing, and the night wind that roared like a wolf swept the goose feathers and snow across the fields and river valleys. In such weather, it is impossible to take a boat, and if I want to change to a carriage to travel, my half-useless feet should also take a good soak.

I changed my bedclothes, burned firewood, and the temperature of the water in the jar became just right. I sat on the bed and soaked my feet in the steaming water, my cold and stiff feet finally warmed up by the hot soup.

But...... Why is there a faint smell of flowers in this room? I didn't wear a sachet on this trip? As I thought so, I suddenly felt a little dizzy, and when I raised my eyes and looked at the black clay jug at my feet, I immediately exclaimed in my heart.

I got up and tried to step out of the basin, but everything in the room seemed to start shaking and spinning, and my body fell to the ground diagonally, but I didn't feel a trace of pain, only that the whole person seemed to be lying on a floating cloud, rising and falling, and finally closed my eyes and fainted.

In the dark, I floated and sank, and the sound of swords intersecting in my ears was sharp and piercing, and the sound of ice and snow whistling was overwhelming.

After a few screams, everything was quiet again. After a while, I only heard a trembling voice in my ear, Ah Shi, Ah Shi......

It must still be a dream. Since I came back to see him in Xinjiang last year, he hasn't called me by name. The girl comes, the girl goes, as if I were really just a stranger who has nothing to do with him.

I felt a sour feeling at this point, so I simply relaxed and let myself float in the void.

"Why are her hands so cold? Has the bleeding from the wound on the foot stopped? ”

"Stopped."

"Why isn't that man awake?"

"The girl looked like she had been drugged, and the medicine was quite heavy. But the people who drugged them are dead, and we have nowhere to find an antidote! ”

"Then hurry up and find a doctor!"

"Master, it's snowing heavily in the middle of the night, where can I go to find a doctor? I see that the girl has a lot of medicine in her baggage, why don't you find it? ”

"Bring it to me!"

Someone carefully took my head and held me tenderly in his arms. After a while, a strange medicinal fragrance filled my nostrils. It's just that I can't move my body and limbs, but I sigh and shake my head in my dreams, this person picked and picked and took a medicine bag made of intoxicating flowers to cure me, I am afraid that this time I will have to sleep for three days and three nights.

……

When I woke up again, it was still night, the lights were lit in the house, and the wind outside the window seemed to have stopped.

Ah Yu leaned against the end of my bed with his eyes closed, and Wuxian was not there. I wanted to open my mouth to make some noise, but my mouth was dry and bitter, my tongue was attached to the skin of my mouth, I couldn't move, and my feet were throbbing and aching.

"Ah Yu?" After swallowing empty saliva for a long time, I finally called out two words.

"In!" Ah Yu jumped up violently and rushed up to help me. I hurriedly waved my hand and motioned for him to pour me a bowl of water first.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked in a hoarse voice.

"The girl has been sleeping for almost three days, but the master has invited all the doctors that Huaicheng can invite, but unfortunately none of them are useful." Ah Yu picked up the handle pot on the table and poured me a large bowl of water.

"What about others?"