The dark clouds lingered in the sky, unwilling to disperse, covering the scorching sun. Untimely winds were raging everywhere and unscrupulous, relying on the heavy rain that was about to come.

One early morning in May, the ensign, who had always slept lightly, woke up early, the gray outside the window, the sky was not yet fully bright, and the sun hid behind the dark clouds, and he was reluctant to come out for a long time. The second lieutenant walked into his study, took a book in his hand, sat down at his desk, and opened it. He didn't turn on the light, and in the dim environment, his gaze rested on the indecipherable words, as if reading rather than reading.

The wind slammed open the windows, and the papers and papers in the room danced with it, and the pages of the books were blown out of number.

It's windy, it's May, why is it still cold?

The lieutenant got up and walked over to the window, closed it, and returned to his desk. He propped his head, the long scar on his face aching. It's really strange, I didn't feel pain when I was injured before, but now it has scabbed over and become an unchangeable part of my body, but I feel the belated pain, the pain that pierces my heart, the pain that inexplicably springs up from my heart.

Boom - the thunder shook the earth, the heavy rain came late, ticking on the window, the second lieutenant seemed to be trapped in this rainy season, the water vapor was thick, and the words in front of him were even more blurred.

It was raining, and he wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye.

Outside, the rain fell like weeping.

It turned out that on the other side of memory, the peach blossoms were in full bloom, the sub-rules were crying, and the wheat seedlings were reflected in the willows. He also used to be freshly dressed and angry, young and energetic, and the beloved girl around him smiled like a flower.

His encounter with Zhen'er dates back to 700 years ago.

On that day, the peach was dying, and the spring was just right.

The grass and trees in the mountains are prosperous, and the fragrance of flowers strikes people. In order to help his friend find a glass hairpin, he went up the mountain. It was at this time that I met Zhen'er.

The girl fell in front of him, recklessly. Changjun was at a loss as he screamed one by one, but Changjun could feel how much this girl liked the man she called Qianxiu. "I'm not a humble cultivator." This sentence seems a bit cruel. Looking at her back as she left in frustration, Changjun felt a little sorry.

Changjun was born in a foreign place and grew up in a foreign country, because his adoptive father was transferred to Xun'an City as an official, so he came to this small city. Surrounded by green hills, the city was isolated from the rest of the world, and although the imperial court and the Hu people had been at war for many years, the people in the small city lived a leisurely life every day, as if war, military service, and harsh taxes had nothing to do with it. However, there is this paradise-like life, not because there was a parent official who loved the people like a son before. On the contrary, Wu Taishou, who had previously patrolled Ancheng, had a tyrannical temperament and was moody.

Changjun heard from the aunt who sold peach blossom cakes on the street that the reason why the former Taishou Wu didn't dare to do anything wrong was because of the punishment of heaven fifty years ago. At that time, Master Wu was rampant, and he suffered retribution, first the eldest son fell from a horse and died, and then the wife and the second son were almost killed by gangsters when they went out of the city, and the Wu family was almost killed, and finally the wing room of the house caught fire, and Wu Taishou was trapped in it and almost died. Since then, Wu Taishou no longer dares to fish the people.

But when the door is closed, in his own home, the old man Wu, the current old man Wu is still tyrannical, and he often beats or scolds the people in the family, even if it is a close wife and concubine, he does not dare to say a word out loud on weekdays, let alone disobey this "tyrant". Master Wu is notorious, and no one in the city dares to touch his scales. Wu Taishou had a favorite concubine, named Ah Jing, when she went to the City God Temple to pray for blessings a few days ago, she lost the glass hairpin he had rewarded, so the tyrant was furious and ordered Ah Jing to find it back within ten days. Ah Jing is the daughter of a powerful family, usually not to show her head, and was forbidden to command her subordinates to look for it, in desperation, Ah Jing found Changjun. A Jing's family and Changjun's family have some friendship, she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Xunyang, and the court suppressed business, so her status was not as good as that of ordinary eunuchs. Poor Ajing was born like a flower and jade, and she was well-read, and she was promised to a bad old man at a young age, which is really suffocating.

Entrusted by Ajing, Changjun went up the mountain. However, Changjun searched inside and outside the City God Temple, and searched along the mountain road several times, but still did not find this glass hairpin. Changjun and Ah Jing are old acquaintances, they were playmates when they were young, how old is Ah Jing Changjun, Changjun has always been Ah Jing is the big sister next door. Later, Changjun's family moved out of Xunyang, and the two had no contact. So when Changjun came to Xun'an City, he heard that Ah Jing had married an old man who had been half-cut into the ground, and he was surprised but helpless, so he could only do his best to help her. But what if you can't find a hairpin now?

When he was at a loss, Changjun suddenly heard the sound of rustling in the grass, thinking that it might be a small beast in the mountains, and when he heard the sound, he saw that it was a girl who had just fallen in front of him, and when the girl saw Changjun, she immediately hid in the grass again. Changjun stepped forward, thinking that it might be a lady who was inconvenient in the mountains.

"Little girl," he asked softly.

I saw her slowly poking her head out of the lush grass, and then timidly stretched out her little hand, and the one lying on her hand was the glass hairpin that Changjun was looking for. Changjun was a little surprised.

"How do you know I'm looking for it?" He took the hairpin.

"Smell." I only heard her whisper two words.

Smell? Changjun was puzzled, and then said with a smile: "Are you a puppy?" ”

The girl's head shook like a rattle, "I'm not a puppy, I'm a fox." ”

"Oh well. Little fox," he thought was just joking, "thank you very much." You are alone in this mountain, but why is it inconvenient? ”

The girl shook her head again.

"If there is anything that will be of use to me in the future, come to me. My surname is Lin, my name is Changjun, and my home is in Pingning Lane in the north of Xun'an City. ”

Zhen'er nodded, but did not speak. At this time, the sun is setting, the clouds are floating, and the sky is getting late.

"I'll go back first, you should go home early." He reached out and touched Zhen'er's head, and was about to turn away, but she pulled the sleeve of his coat.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly.

"If it's okay, can I go to you later?" The girl's clear eyes glowed with the glow of the setting sun, a little pitiful, and as if a flame of hope was burning.

"Well, of course."

The wind and rain outside the window showed no signs of stopping, and the fragments of memory collided in his brain, sparking sparks. He learns of the irretrievable past from her books, but the chaotic memories brutally erase the truest part of his heart forever, leaving only unforgettable sorrow and remorse. The hot tea prepared by Sophie on the table he picked up found that it was already cold. He looked at the pouring rain outside the house and sighed, spring has passed, and it will never come again.

A few days after that day went up the mountain, one night, he lay on the roof, looking up at the clear sky, and the stars poured out from the corners of the sky, like a dream. Changjun remembered the last time he looked at the stars like this, but his memory was always deceptive, and he always deliberately fell into a certain period of time in his heart. There were no more stars in front of him, but countless warriors lying in pools of blood, followed by the shadow of swords and swords, the burning wolf smoke, the shattered mountains and rivers, and the smell of fishy, sticky blood wafting in the air. Changjun came back to his senses, his stomach churned, he tried to restrain himself from thinking about it anymore, but then what appeared in front of him was the scene when his father was framed by the gangsters, and his mother lying on the sickbed, muttering something in his mouth, and he couldn't keep anything. Although he was adopted by the Lin family, and the Lin family regarded him as their own, some things were always a knot in his heart.

Changjun took a deep breath, why is this world so difficult, leaving no one a chance to breathe. Born in troubled times, the so-called years are quiet, and the mountains and rivers are unharmed, but it is just a fool's dream. Even in this Xun'an City, where the people live and work in peace and contentment, the prosperity and noise are just a mirror, and under the iron hooves, how long can this leisurely Taiping song be sung?

Changjun has lived for eighteen years, these eighteen years, he has been on the battlefield, experienced life and death, seen the world is cold, people's hearts are sinister, he thought that he could already be alone, but at this moment, under the galaxy, he suddenly found that in fact, his heart is still as fragile as a child. For more than ten years, being alone and lonely has long been taken as a common occurrence. However, he can't treat the injustices of this world with a normal heart like a hermit, and he can't abandon the unwillingness and grievances that have accumulated in his heart for a long time. What the future will be, Changjun has never thought about it, or he has never had the heart to think about it, after all, just fighting against this world is already painstaking and exhausting.

It was a little cold at night, and he returned from the roof to the inner room, only to see a faint candlelight shining in the room, and a girl lying on the table, obediently playing with the teacup on the table. When the girl heard the sound and turned around, she saw that it was the girl she had met on the mountain that day. The girl's eyes were clear and bright, and in this dim room, it seemed to carry the stars that lit up the world. Changjun was a little surprised, although he had been staying on the roof, his life over the years had trained his keen sense. But when the girl came in, he didn't notice it at all.

"How did you get in?"

"Came in through the door." The girl immediately stood up and replied, still a little timid, clasping her sleeves with her hands.

Perhaps, it was just that he was careless, Changjun comforted.

"Little fox, you can't do this in the future." Changjun remembered that day in the mountains, the girl joked that she was a fox.

"Can't you come to your house like this?" She asked cautiously.

"You can't go to anyone's house at this time, especially a man's house."

"Why?" The girl's innocent eyes were full of confusion.

"Because you are your daughter's family, it is inconvenient to go out at this time, and besides, if you are in the same room with a foreign man, it will damage your reputation." Changjun patiently explained.

But the girl blinked, apparently not understanding what he meant. Changjun sighed, a little helpless.

"Forget it, little fox, I'll send you home."

As soon as the words fell, the girl's eyes were full of loneliness. After a long time, Changjun recalled the girl's expression at this time, and realized that there were decades of anticipation under her lonely eyes.

"Can I stay here?" The girl lowered her head and asked tentatively, "I just came down from the mountain and don't want to go back." ”

"Your home is in the mountains?" In this way, it is a little inappropriate to go up the mountain late at night, and it is not impossible for her to stay overnight at her own house.

"Well, my home is in the mountains because I'm a fox."

"Yes, yes, little fox." Changjun coped. "Then you live at my house tonight, and I'll send you back early tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Hmm!" The girl nodded vigorously, joy written all over her face.

It was late at night, and the housewife had already gone to bed, so it was inconvenient to disturb it. The girl wanted to stay overnight, and Changjun privately arranged a west wing room for her.

"You're going to be here tonight, I'll sleep next door, and if you need anything in the middle of the night, you can call me."

"Need it now." I saw the girl hand the two small clay pots she was carrying to Changjun.

"This is my peach blossom wine. Let's drink together. ”

This girl is really strange, she recklessly fell in front of her when they met for the first time, and mistook herself for someone else, and now she suddenly came to visit in the middle of the night, and brought peach blossom wine to him, a person with whom he only had a one-sided relationship, and I don't know what the purpose was. She looked fifteen or sixteen years old, and she didn't know anything about the world. Innocent like her, Changjun didn't know how to deal with it, so he had to repeatedly agree to her strange requests. He took out some of the family's pastries and put them on the table, sat down beside her, and drank with her.

"Little fox, you're so strange."

"I'm not surprised, and besides, you can call me Zhen'er." Zhen'er ate the pastry and seemed to have a soft spot for peach blossom crisp, and after a while, the plate with the peach blossom crisp was empty.

"What are you looking for me?" I don't know why I came to visit late at night.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Is that the guy named Qianxiu?" Changjun recalled that when she first met, she always called out humbly.

"Hmm. I wasn't allowed to go down the mountain before, so I kept waiting for him. ”

"Why didn't you go down the mountain?"

"I made a mistake and burned down the wing room of Master Wu's house." Zhen'er replied honestly, looking like a child worried about punishment.

Wasn't the fire in the wing room of Mr. Wu's house fifty years ago? Changjun was a little confused. He picked up the wine glass in front of him, took a sip, and found that the wine was indeed mellow, as if it had gathered the aura of heaven and earth.

"You burned down the wing room of Master Wu's house, so how old are you this year?" Putting down his glass, he asked.

"I don't know, I'm only a few hundred years old." He stuffed other pastries into his mouth.

"How many hundreds?"

"I'm a fox, a few hundred years is a very young man." Vera replied, taking it for granted.

"Changjun, will you leave here?" She put down the pastry in her hand, worried, "Do you want to make a career too?" When she said "make a contribution", her expression was very dazed, obviously not understanding the meaning of the word.

"I've thought about it." Changjun still replied very seriously, perhaps wanting to vent his dissatisfaction. "But the court is now a traitor, I have no family background, and I have no connections, and I can't compete with it on my own, let alone display my ambitions. Moreover...... "He stopped talking and fell into some painful memory."

"And what?"

"Nothing." He came back to his senses, "No matter what I do, the court will run out." ”

"You seem to be sad?"

"Sort of."

"Qian Xiu said, 'The rise and fall of the family and the country come from time to time'." Zhen'er comforted.

Changjun couldn't help laughing, "You still know what 'the rise and fall of a family and a country comes from time to time', but this time it's a little different." ”

The night was quiet, and the darkness that shrouded the sky swallowed everything, but it couldn't swallow the bloody rain and bloody wind of the northern battlefield, nor could it swallow the wind and clouds in Changjun's heart, this long dark night would never end.

Zhen'er fell asleep on the table, her face flushed from the wine. Changjun looked at Zhen'er, such a girl, as if there was no darkness in her heart, and what she saw when she opened her eyes was light. After taking off her guard, Zhen'er revealed her furry brown-red tail, and the ears hidden under her hair had become the ears of a spiky beast.

It turns out that she is really a fox.

"Hey, little fox, don't tell others that you are a little fox in the future."

"Little fox, don't show your ears and tail in the world."

No one responded, Changjun still said to himself, and in a trance, he suddenly realized that he hadn't talked to someone like this for a long, long time.

"Little fox, the world is a very dangerous place."

The night was still silent, the peach trees in the courtyard were also blooming, the peach blossoms were blooming, and the dark night in Changjun's heart broke a gap somewhere, ushering in the long-lost starlight.