It all started half a month ago.

At that time, Xie Chenfang said goodbye to Yan Juan from Ganlu Temple, and originally planned to stay in the temple for a few more days before returning to the city.

Unexpectedly, the next day, the steward of the Xie family's courtyard suddenly came over.

The courtyard where the steward was located was the one at the foot of the Ganlu Temple. Xie Chen also lived with his family in another courtyard temporarily, and when Master Pudu was unwilling to let Yan Juan become a little monk earlier, he and Yan Juan were not allowed to live in the temple, and he and Yan Juan also lived in this courtyard.

Although he spent most of his time resting in the guest courtyard of Ganlu Temple, that courtyard was special in his heart.

But the steward came to report that the house in the other courtyard under the mountain had collapsed.

That's weird.

Jinguancheng has always been in good weather, and there has never been a flash flood, how did the good house suddenly collapse?

If it's in disrepair, it's reasonable.

But the courtyard at the foot of the mountain was built in the year Xie Chen was born, using fine stones, black tiles and white walls, not to mention one or twenty years, that is, fifty, sixty or seventy years, and it should not collapse inexplicably!

Xie Chen hurried down the mountain.

When approaching the Xie family's courtyard, there was still no abnormality, the white wall of the courtyard called the vermilion gate, coupled with the looming eaves between the canopies, it looked like the scenery of the water town in the south of the Yangtze River.

He couldn't help but doubt the words of the steward in his heart.

Those subordinates of the Xie family always like to exaggerate when they reply in front of him.

It's obviously a trivial matter, let them retell it, and it immediately becomes a hundred thousand urgent, and it's not a scolding person, and it's not a scolding.

If that were the case, the situation in the annex wouldn't be so bad.

Maybe the walls of the house are peeling off, or the roof tiles are leaking, so that when it's rainy, the inside of the house leaks.

Just when Xie Chen was thinking about all kinds of possibilities, the Xie family's courtyard arrived.

At the door of the courtyard squatted a group of subordinates, all of them with sad faces.

Xie Chen couldn't help but sigh in his heart, it didn't seem to be very good!

The one who came to find Xie Chen was surnamed Jiang.

Steward Jiang quickened his pace, stepped forward and asked the subordinates gathered at the door to get out of the way, and then looked back at Xie Chen.

"Young master, you will go in later, no matter what you see, don't be too surprised, the house in our courtyard has indeed collapsed, and it has collapsed very badly."

There is no remedy.

Xie Chen's gaze swept back and forth between Steward Jiang and those subordinates, and he actually felt that the expressions on the faces of these people were the same as the bitterness.

I don't know what happened to the houses in the other courtyard, so that these people can put on a bitter and hateful appearance.

His doubts didn't last long, and soon he saw the real collapsed house.

He lived with his father and mother when he was a child, and later because of Mrs. Xie's death, Master Xie married another, and then asked him to ask someone to seal up the yard.

The courtyard was full of Xie Chen's memories when he was young, and he had specially instructed the people in the other courtyard to let them take good care of all the items in the courtyard. Although he never set foot in this courtyard again, everything in the courtyard was arranged according to the way he remembered.

However, the courtyard that appeared in front of him now had completely reduced to ruins.

The ground was full of bricks and stones, and the original appearance of the yard could no longer be seen.

"This house is indeed collapsing badly," Xie Chen laughed angrily, and walked into the ruins with his feet raised.

A house that collapses naturally can still maintain some of the original appearance of the house, at least there will be a little foundation left at the base of the wall.

And the pile of ruins in front of Xie Chen, not to mention the root of the wall, it even has a broken foundation, Xie Chen has been looking for a long time, and he has not even seen a complete piece of masonry.

He bent down to pick up a broken brick on the ground, turned around and threw it at the feet of Steward Jiang, "I asked you to take good care of this courtyard, this is the result of your care?" ”

The broken bricks fell to the ground and rolled several times before stopping.

In the cold weather, Steward Jiang wiped the sweat on his forehead and said with a wry smile: "Young master, I don't really want to quibble, but this house was still good yesterday, who would have thought that after the night passed, it would become what it is now." ”

It's not that he wants to blame the ghosts and gods, but some things are really so unpredictable.

"When you entered the door just now, you also saw the group of subordinates at the door," Steward Jiang sighed, and then said, "The subordinates who were in charge of cleaning the yard came to me in a panic in the morning, and I knew that there was an accident in the courtyard here, but I didn't hear a strange sound last night, so I specially found all the subordinates in the courtyard, but even the subordinates who lived near this courtyard didn't find anything abnormal last night." ”

"There is a private school near our courtyard, next to the big banyan tree a hundred meters away, the gentleman in the private school lives there all the year round, and I also asked people to inquire about the gentleman over there, and he didn't hear any other movement last night."

Just like that, the yard turned into a pile of ruins.

Although it looks like it was man-made, who in this world would have such great ability to completely destroy a courtyard in a silent voice, and even the foundation was turned out and broken!

Steward Jiang lowered his head, and his eyes were a little red.

Xie Chen wouldn't listen to his words.

It's just that he knew about this matter a little late, so he called someone to inquire now, and who knows if Steward Jiang had done anything in advance.

For the sake of today's plan, I have to stabilize Steward Jiang for the time being, as well as the subordinates of this courtyard, and then make other plans.

Although Xie Chen made a decision in his heart, he was not very happy in the end.

When he said this, there was a bit of unhappiness in his tone.

Previously, he poured tea and water for Yan Juan, for fear that Yan Wan would be too angry, so he turned around now.

Yan Juan poured him a cup of hot tea and persuaded him in a low voice: "Don't be too angry, when you find Zhong Ning to find out the real reason for the collapse of the house, when the time comes, you can find whoever you want to be angry, and you don't have to hold all your anger in your heart." ”

Xie Chen's words were a bit much, and he was thirsty at this time.

He drank tea and shook his head at Yan Juan.

"Later, I did drag Zhongning to help check, and Steward Jiang really didn't lie, although I don't know if anyone was secretly doing it, but that courtyard really turned into ruins overnight."

Without waiting for Yan Juan to express her curiosity, Xie Chen suddenly asked her, "Do you remember the bag of sugar-fried chestnuts I brought you?" ”

"Huh? Does this have anything to do with sugar-fried chestnuts? ”

Didn't they just talk about the Xie family's courtyard? Why did you suddenly talk about fried chestnuts in sugar?

Yan Juan felt a little confused.

Xie Chen explained: "Didn't I just ask you if you believe in resurrection from the dead? That incident happened when I left the annex, and it happened to have a slight connection with sugar-fried chestnuts. ”

Yan Wan couldn't help but sit up straight, although she didn't quite understand the logical relationship, she still nodded.

I heard Xie Chen say: "I told you before, how do you know that the sugar-fried chestnuts are the best......

Yan Wan's nodding movement was much smoother.

Of course, she remembered what Xie Chen had said.

The young Xie Chen was the only child in the family, and his parents took great care of him and did not often take him out. His nurse used to be a maid by Mrs. Xie's side, and she was also a little thin in front of Mrs. Xie, so she could always go home for a few days a month.

Xie Chen's happiest thing when he was a child was the day when the nurse came back from home.

Because at that time, the nurse would always bring him some gadgets from outside the house, maybe a sugar gourd, maybe all kinds of clay sculptures bought from street vendors.

The sugar-fried chestnuts were brought to him by the nurse.

"I was the only one who survived the bandits that winter." The expression on Xie Chen's face was quite lonely.

It is extremely lucky to get away with it, but if the price is the life of the person he cherishes, then this luck will also be greatly reduced.

His hand holding the cup slowly tightened, "I remember what they looked like after they died, my mother, and those others, I remember." ”

"But Wanwan, do you believe that people can come back from the dead?"

He asked a similar question again.

Yan Wan's heart trembled, and she suddenly had some ominous premonition.

"I forgot, you said you didn't believe it." Xie Chen shook his head, his body unloaded, and leaned back on the back of the chair a little decadently.

He said: "After I came out of the courtyard that day, I wanted to go back to the city to find Zhongning. It was only when I stepped out of the courtyard that I saw a convoy resting on the side of the road. ”

There is no clear sign on the carriage, but the clothes on the accompanying guards are the styles that are popular in the capital.

To be exact, it was during the period when Xie Chen left the capital that the style suddenly emerged.

"Someone came out of the carriage, I glanced at it, and then I saw someone who wasn't supposed to be there."

"It shouldn't be...... Person? ”

"She and Fang Niang look exactly the same, no, it can't be said to be exactly the same, she is older than I remember. But if you calculate the time, ten years have passed, and it is normal for her to be older. ”

Fang Niang is Xie Chen's nurse.

Only then did Yan Juan understand why Xie Chen had such unrealistic questions.

The only people who survived ten years ago were Xie Chen, whether it was Mrs. Xie, or Fang Niang, or those little maids in Xie Mansion, none of those people could survive from the bandits.

Although Xie Chen did not bury them with his own hands, before he fainted, he also followed the people brought by Master Xie to collect the bodies of those who died at the hands of the robbers.

He is different from Yan Juan.

Yan Juan blamed all the blame for his brother's death on himself, living a miserable life day after day, eating porridge and cabbage, and reciting Buddhist scriptures, but he was never willing to recall his brother's voice and appearance.

As far as she is concerned, as long as she seriously thinks about the brother who puts her first in everything, she may not even have the idea of living.

Her brother who had been best to her was no longer alive, and she was even the one who killed him, so she lost all courage when she thought of these things.

It's just that her brother bought her life back for her life.

She must not let her brother sacrifice his life in vain, so there are some old things that she is most reluctant to mention.

But thank you for remembering.

He remembered all the people who died in that accident, their names and their appearances, he remembered them clearly.

Therefore, Xie Chen was able to recognize the woman who looked exactly like Fang Niang in the crowd.

Yan Wan stumbled and said: "Maybe, probably, I mean, maybe things are similar, people are the same?" There are so many people in this world, and it is not impossible that some people look alike! ”

Coincidences are always everywhere.

"I don't think there should be such a coincidence in the world," Xie Chen closed his eyes, "I heard a little girl in the carriage calling her name." ”

"She called her Aunt Fang."

Maybe there are two people in this world who look alike, but how can they even have the same name!

When Yan Juan heard this, she stopped talking.

She really didn't have anything to say.

Actually, Xie Chen had other things to say.

For example, through the gap in the curtain, he saw the little girl in the carriage.

The little girl who called 'Aunt Fang' in an extremely soft voice, she also had a face that made Xie Chen feel very familiar.

The little girl looks like she is only seven or eight years old, and her appearance has not yet grown, but the foundation is placed there, and you can also see how slim she will be in the future.

Xie Chen used to be the only child in the family, and he always hoped that his father and mother could give him another brother and sister.

He had already planned it.

If his father and mother give birth to a younger brother, he will train his younger brother to read and write from an early age and teach him the principles of how to behave in the world; If his father and mother can give birth to a younger sister, then he will be even happier, he will send all the good things to his sister, and the little girl's family should be pampered.

He had many times in his mind what his future siblings would look like.

Will it be more like my mother, or more like my father?

Later, when Mrs. Xie died, he never thought about those things again.

Even if his stepmother gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, they were not the younger brothers and sisters he was looking forward to, and he always got along with them lightly, keeping a distance, as if they were familiar strangers.

And the little girl in the carriage is very similar to the sister he imagined, and even her appearance is very similar to the mother in his memory.

Yan Wan clenched her fingertips, slowed down for a while, and then whispered: "Then were you investigating Fangniang's affairs before?" ”

She actually wanted to ask in more detail.

If Fang Niang is still alive, is it possible that the other people who died in the accident are also alive?

"I don't know if I should check it or not," Xie Chen looked up at Yan Xuan, his eyes full of hesitation.

What should he do if the truth is found out to overturn all his previous knowledge?

He wasn't even sure if he would have the courage to bear the truth.

Yan Juan looked at Xie Chen's rare and fragile appearance, and suddenly felt pity in her heart.

In the past, Xie Chen was in front of her, except for when they first met, he had always behaved very responsibly, and nothing could be difficult for him repeatedly, and this was the first time she had seen him so vulnerable.

"You already know that the truth is there, and if you don't check it, there will definitely be a knot in your heart that you can't untie." She paused for a moment before continuing, "No matter what the truth you find out is, and what changes will occur in the future, I will not change after all. ”

"Do you feel better when you think about it?"

Xie Chen sighed, and finally smiled with relief.

"You have to remember what you said today, but don't forget ......"

His voice was very soft and soft, if Yan Wan hadn't been paying attention to him all the time, he would have been unable to hear it.