"At that time, the eldest brother was the one who was in charge and the one who received the decree, and he was the first to jump out, saying that he didn't know the imperial seal of the holy decree, and the Yan clan did not follow the affairs of the court, and even the saint himself could not directly control us. We also shouted, and we would not receive the decree without the patriarch himself. The messenger knew that we would resist, so he took out an envelope and handed it to the eldest brother. The envelope contained a handwritten letter from the patriarch, as well as a token of the Yan clan. The letter said that the Yan clan was dead, and it was from the holy decree. ”

In Zhu Jing's eyes, tears slipped down.

The Yan clan is gone, and the patriarch didn't even show up, just a handwritten letter, eight words, which made the hot-blooded and impulsive brothers extinguish their ambitions.

The eldest brother was stunned, and the brothers in the clan passed the letter from the patriarch one by one, and I don't know whose hand the letter ended up, but in short, all the people read it carefully, and confirmed that the letter was indeed written by the patriarch himself. The city was quiet and silent, and then some people began to laugh, and some people were wiping away tears, and we all knew that the Yan clan was really gone. ”

I sniffed and wiped the tears that were oozing from my eyes.

"The person who delivered the decree was also considered bloody, he led the crowd out of Yancheng, and when he arrived at the door, he said that we would have a day to mourn in the city, and then come back to copy the seal. He wanted us not to rebel in vain, and the patriarch had told him that he did not want to see any blood in the city, much less any damage to the brothers. ”

That night, the city was dead and dark, and there were no torches by the moat, and there was no chatter of brothers. Everything changed, we sat by the moat, after a long dark night, watching the morning sun stain the river red, and I wished it was just a dream, or—or just a joke, a prank by the patriarch, it was just a test of loyalty...... But the moment the sun lit up the ground, I finally woke up, because I saw tears streaming down the faces of my brothers, including my eldest brother. Everything, it's true. ”

"Many people have made a decision, they took off the swallow clothes, and left this place where more than ten years of blood and faith were entrusted without looking back, they all have a proud backbone, they would rather go into the grass as a coward, than be someone else's dog and horse, they also hate the patriarch ruthlessly, and can give up the blood and abandon the Yan clan like a mustard. The remaining half are waiting for the eldest brother's decision, many of us have lived in Yancheng since childhood, leaving Yancheng, leaving the arrangements and instructions of the Yan clan, we don't know how to gain a foothold in this world at all. We were ridiculed by the people who left as "boneless parasites and the like", waiting for the arrival of the herald in the city, and watched them copy the Yancheng and remove the city card, which accidentally fell and shattered into two pieces during the dismantling process. The history of the Yan people stopped at that moment. ”

I couldn't bear Zhu Jing to recall that sad scene again, and asked, "Then later, where did you go?" How could you follow Lord Shangguan? ”

"We went back to the imperial capital, more than forty people, and on the way to the more than a dozen, there were only twenty-three people who really returned to the imperial capital to accept the appointment of the court. At that time, I was still very young, and my eldest brother had always taken good care of me, and he had to take me with him, but in fact, we still wanted to find the patriarch or the lord, and maybe everything would turn around. According to the original meaning of the Holy Decree, we cannot be codified together, and the Holy One is afraid that if we are together, we will rebel. So we are experiencing separation every day, and after being separated by seven people from other official lands, the remaining sixteen people worry about their whereabouts every day. The last time I was compiled, sixteen of us were actually compiled together and taken away by the Prime Minister's Office. We were all overjoyed, this was the only thing that made us happy since the Yan were dismantled. After entering the Prime Minister's Mansion, I realized why so many of us could be grouped together to enter the Prime Minister's Mansion, because our Lord General was working in the Prime Minister's Mansion. ”

My eyes widened, who is the Lord General? Could it be—

"Seeing the Lord General is like a wandering child seeing his own family, we can't tell how excited we are. However, the Lord General seemed to be a different person, not only pretending not to know us, but also repeatedly emphasizing that he was the steward of the Prime Minister's Mansion, and only came to take us back on behalf of the Prime Minister's Mansion. We are all very confused, the soldiers of the Yan clan are not in the official rank, but our lord has actually become the right-hand man of the young Xiangye, he did not add the surname Yan anymore, and he also denied any past of the Yan clan. A group of our brothers, many of whom were personally selected by the Lord to bring him into Yancheng, although he is usually strict with us, but in the bottom of our hearts, we all regard him as a very respectful elder. But when the Yan clan suffered, he had already inhabited other good trees, and he didn't have the slightest brotherhood for us. ”

"Are you talking about Lord General, is it Lord Zong?" Maybe for so many years, only Zhu Jing will tell others that her surname is Yan, and the others may have forgotten or compromised.

Zhu Jing pursed her lips, sighed and said: "It's ridiculous, he was the first person who brought me into Yancheng, and he was the one who finally took us out of the identity of Yan Jiang and came to Xiangye." On the way, he warned us very severely, the Yan clan no longer exists, Xiang Ye Nian has a friendship with the patriarch of the old clan, only to have a stalemate with the saint for a long time and then incorporated sixteen of us, after entering the Prime Minister's Mansion, we are the people of the Prime Minister's Mansion, if the old master of the former clan is mentioned again, it is to disobey the holy decree, it is a great crime of rebellion and rebellion, Xiang Ye is kind to us, we can not put him in the unrighteous place, if he hears anyone who mentions the word Yan, he will drive him out of the Xiang Mansion. …… Every word he said was to maintain the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the Yan clan was nothing more than a name to him, a shameless outcast. ”

Why? Zong Bai doesn't look like the kind of person who tends to be inflammatory, why does he seem to be a different person? Is there another problem?

"After we entered the Prime Minister's Mansion, the days were quiet, there was no rough work, and we didn't have to look at people's faces. Xiangye arranged us to a separate hospital, obviously as a nursing home, but in fact, there were no errands, just eating idle meals and mixing days. At the beginning, my eldest brother and I went to the Lord General many times, even if we knew the reason for the death, but the Lord General always drove us out of the door again and again, and then the eldest brother slowly gave up ......"

What is going on with this Zongbai?

"Then, I don't know when it started, the eldest brother began to dislike me for always bringing up the old things, as soon as I mentioned things related to the Yan clan to him, he was extremely disgusted, most of the time he ignored it, but when he was in a bad mood, he would call me, and he didn't allow me to mention the Yan clan again, and I didn't allow me to mention the ridiculous hope again, he also said......" Zhu Jing retracted, looking at a certain place in a daze, tears flashing.

"What else is he saying?"

He also said......"

"The lord of the dead country, the chaos of the disaster, the Yan clan died in the hands of a woman, what is the possibility of recovering the clan?!" A loud voice sounded, and Xiang Zhou walked into the room with his hands behind his back.

"Big brother!" Zhu Jing had seven points of anger and three points of awe on her face.

Xiang Zhou glared at me aggressively and said, "That's what I said to Zhu Jing, a stupid boy who daydreams about Yan Xin's immortality. ”

I just came to immerse myself in Zhu Jing's sad memories, and Xiang Zhou's loud words woke me up in one fell swoop. His fierce look was terrifying, and I jerked back.

Xiang Zhou glared at Zhu Jing and said fiercely: "Who allowed you to talk nonsense to these irrelevant people?" You think you don't have to listen to me if you find a new backer, do you? ”

Zhu Jing frowned and glared, "How can the eldest lady be an irrelevant person?" - How can the affairs of the Yan clan be a mess? ”

Xiang Zhou sneered: "The Yan clan is long gone, I would rather it be covered under the sand and burned in flames, and I never want to hear this ridiculous name of the dead clan mentioned again!" As a member of the Dead, there is nothing but shame! ”

Zhu Jing gritted his teeth and took a step forward, presumably Xiang Zhou's radical words touched his temper, and said to his brother who had always been in awe: "Big brother, usually you don't want me to mention it, but why do you say this in front of the eldest lady——"

Xiang Zhou gritted his teeth and laughed angrily: "Yes, because I have always been skeptical, I don't want to believe the truth that Lord General told me, until I came here......" He raised his hand and pointed at me, his eyes seemed to be on fire, as if I was some great enemy of his, "This is the best proof, all the rumors are true, the patriarch betrayed his mission for the sake of a woman, and ruined all the hopes of the Yan clan!" ”

"Big brother, what did you say?"

"What do I say? Why don't you ask the Lord General yourself, who is that woman upstairs in this Zhuangzi? Ask him, why is he as loyal as he is unwilling to admit that he was once the chief general of the Yan clan, and why does he never mention the matter of recovering the clan? ”

Zhu Jing was stunned, I was even more confused, I only knew that he was hostile to me, but Zhu Jing said that he hadn't told me the reason yet.

"The woman upstairs is the daughter of the former imperial capital butterfly, our ambitious patriarch of the Yan clan, fell in love with a disaster country, learned the virtues of all the lords of the dead country, only loves the beauty and does not love the country, in order to hold the beauty, he made this deal on the pilgrimage at the cost of the future of the Yan clan and all our brothers, a Yan clan, for a woman, this is the truth you have always wanted to know."

Zhu Jing's stunned expression froze on her face.

I stared at Xiang Zhou in a daze, feeling that the anger in his eyes had burned on my body, hot and trembling.

"On the night of the sit-in by the moat, I should have thought clearly, I should have taken off my armor and left with the dignity of Yan Jiang, but I was so stupid, so naïve and still had illusions about everything, and I was willing to put on the skin of 'boneless parasitic and the like', and I wanted to find out the truth, find the patriarch, and recover the Yan clan! And our patriarch has long been retired to the countryside with the beauty, living a happy life that I don't know how much I know, only we are still in the dark, waiting endlessly for him to come back! ”

"No, it won't! No, it won't! There must be a misunderstanding somewhere, patriarch he won't-he won't-" Zhu Jing spoke incoherently, looking at me in panic.

"No misunderstanding, this is what the Lord General told me personally...... Maybe...... Maybe we expect too much from him...... He is always just a normal person, and the mission of the Yan clan is as heavy as the top for him, so the last step of Yan Xingyunqiao is to call the tired Yan homecoming, he is tired, he doesn't want to bear so many expectations of all of us anymore, and he doesn't want to live like a hero standing against the sky and loess every day......" Xiang Zhou looked at Zhu Jing with a stubborn face like a brother.