In the area south of the Yangtze River, the lakes are continuous, and the ports and Tianjin are scattered. But all the celebrities with some family backgrounds will buy their own boats and save boats, and they will sail on the lake on weekdays, drinking and having fun. In the previous dynasty, there was a gentleman with a strong family background, who once built a building boat on the Huanhua River, let his servants sing on the boat, and gathered more than 100 celebrities from all over the world to come to watch, which was a grand event.

Since then, the trend of singing in the building boat has become popular. In addition to raising their own talents, the shipowner sometimes invites famous opera troupes to help with the fun. On the Huanhua River, the lights are often lit up and singing, day and night. Sometimes, there are hundreds of large and small boats that come to watch the theater by boat.

Huanhua River from Ling'an to the south, meandering hundreds of miles, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, each ferry has a painting boat for rent, the oars are all smiling and delicate weeping girls, if you are willing to spend more silver taels, you can also summon three or five female prostitutes to accompany you to drink, it is an excellent choice for scholars to entertain and pastime.

Song Ran had heard of the nightlife on the Huanhua River for a long time, but she was not interested in this extravagant pastime, if it weren't for the fact that Kunban, who was invited to sing this time, was too famous, and was so famous that she would regret it for life if she didn't listen to it, she wouldn't suddenly mention this stubble to Shen Hanxi.

She really didn't expect that Meng Changbai, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, spent such a lot of money specifically to entertain Shen Hanxi.

The sky is already twilight, the Huanhua River is lit up, as far as the eye can see, the river is full of pink and white green painting boats, in the bustling flow of people, there are two people in brocade clothes walking side by side, pedestrians see them wearing black gauze hats, feet pedaling white bottom brocade boots, all consciously give way to them.

Only the generals of the Imperial Guards would wear boots with white soles, which was also a privilege.

Xia Xiaoqiu looked at the girl who was dressed in the same way as herself, and didn't quite understand: "I don't understand, an adult takes a woman to the play, what is worth covering up." Whether it is a member of the court or an elegant celebrity, it is normal to bring one or two women to a banquet. Why do you have to do this extra thing, let Miss Song dress up as a man? ”

The woman holding the reins disagreed, and said, "My lord is also for my good." ”

After all, this is not a private occasion, I don't know how many pairs of eyes are staring at him, if he doesn't have the habit of taking a woman on weekdays, but today he suddenly brings a woman, it will definitely attract a lot of attention.

She's desperately trying to hide her identity, but she can't be noticed anymore.

Xia Xiaoqiu didn't think so, and said: "If it's really for Miss Song, you should marry Miss Song home as soon as possible and give Miss Song a name." He muttered, "Let the one in the palace die as soon as possible." ”

Song Ran paused: "The one in the palace?" The hand holding the reins tightened unconsciously, "Lord Xia is talking about Concubine Yi?" ”

Xia Xiaoqiu raised her eyebrows: "You also know her?" Did an adult tell you that? He didn't know anything about men and women, so he naturally didn't know how to handle this aspect, and when he heard Song Ran mention it, he complained to Su Long and poured out, "I don't know what the adults have taken a fancy to her, and they have worked hard over the years to help her climb from an unfavored concubine to the position of a concubine step by step." If the adult wants to place a hand in the palace, it makes sense to help her like this, the key thing is that she hasn't helped her all these years, and she's thankful that she doesn't make trouble for the adult. ”

Song Ran paused his hand lightly and said, "Presumably, the concubine Niangniang has a different meaning for adults." ”

Listening to Xia Xiaoqiu's meaning, he doesn't ask for anything in return for his kindness to her, and he can be so devoted to it, thinking that this noble concubine is not an ordinary concubine in his heart.

Xia Xiaoqiu had already regarded Song Ran as her own person, and she had always been open-mouthed in front of her, and blurted out: "She is the emperor's woman, even if the adult really goes to her embroidery bed, what kind of result can she have?" He glanced at Song Ran and praised sincerely, "It's still Miss Song." ”

What he meant by saying this was to show her that the adults in my family are men who have been on the concubine's embroidery bed, and the men who can go to the concubine's embroidery bed, how many can there be in this world? In the future, if you follow my family, you will enjoy endless glory and wealth.

As everyone knows, when these words fell into Song Ran's ears, they brought a completely different taste.

She figured that she didn't seem to know him at all. I don't know who he loved before he met her, and if he still loves that person now.

She suddenly felt that she had some greed, and she wanted to have everything he had, and even thought that if he had someone else in his heart, then she would rather not have it at all.

After a moment's distraction, a man suddenly fell on the side of the road, startling her horse. She was almost knocked upside down, but fortunately she grabbed the reins in time to stabilize the frightened jujube red horse. Seeing the man fall to the ground in agony, she hurriedly turned over and dismounted, took his hand and helped him up.

It was an old man, his hair was almost knotted, and his clothes were very shabby. He shook her hand away as if he had been burned by a hot soldering iron.

Song Ran paused slightly, and put his hands behind his back.

Xia Xiaoqiu saw him rushing suddenly just now, almost causing Song Ran to fall off the horse, and coldly reprimanded: "Stinky old man, don't you have long eyes when you walk?" ”

His body shrunk, his whole face hidden under his unkempt hair, and he muttered a muttered hoarseness, not knowing what he was saying.

Song Ran was not angry at his suitable movements, and comforted softly: "Don't be afraid, old man, have you fallen somewhere, can you walk?" ”

He looked up tremblingly in her soft words. Song Ran saw his face clearly, and couldn't help but be shocked, only to see that the old man in front of him was so thin that he was almost out of shape, as if there was only a layer of skin wrapped on his face, which was strange and scary. Especially those sunken eyes, shining with a cold light, make people shudder.

She was so shocked that she took a step back, and when Xia Xiaoqiu saw this, she hurriedly dismounted and walked to her side, looking at the other party vigilantly.

The other party quickly lowered his head, hid the cold light in his eyes, and turned to leave.

He was scrawny, like a lonely ghost, and was soon swallowed up in the crowd.

Song Ran withdrew his gaze from him, and suddenly raised his sleeve and sniffed it. Xia Xiaoqiu was puzzled: "Miss Song, what's wrong?" ”

She said, "It seems to have some kind of smell." ”

The smell was slightly pungent, a little like the smell of sulfur.

She put down her sleeves and said to Xia Xiaoqiu: "It's probably an illusion." "I was about to get on my horse, but suddenly I saw a person in the crowd. The man was slender, wearing a water-red silver-trimmed thread skirt, and although he was wearing a curtain fence on his head, the thin veil could not stop the impressive and charming face.

Although it was only a blink of an eye, Song Ran was sure that it was Jiang Lili. She frowned, shoved the reins of the horse into Xia Xiaoqiu's hand, and without saying a word, chased after her. Xia Xiaoqiu reacted, looked at her back and shouted, "Miss Song, what are you doing!" ”

Song Ran shuttled through the crowd, bumping into oncoming pedestrians from time to time, thanks to the brocade dress on her body, so that the people who were hit did not dare to complain. On a street corner, Jiang Lili finally let out an exclamation and was pressed against the wall by her.

The curtain on her head fell to the ground, revealing her delicate and bright eyebrows.

Although she had only seen two or three times, Song Ran still remembered her appearance vividly.

Jiang Lili frowned while panting: "What do you belong to, why do you run so fast?" ”

Song Ran propped her hands on the wall, didn't bother to pay attention to her question, and said coldly: "Miss Jiang, meet again." ”

Jiang Lili looked at the person in front of her, suddenly hooked the corners of her lips, stretched out her onion-like fingers, and picked her chin: "Yo, which family's Xiaolangjun is this, he is so handsome." The slave was walking well on the road, what did Lang Jun suddenly catch up with? Even if you fall in love with a slave, you can't be molested in the street. ”

The corners of Song Ran's lips twitched, who is teasing whom now? brushed away her dishonest fingers and said, "Miss Jiang, there are some things, don't you feel that you owe me an explanation." ”

She looked innocent: "It's been so long since the affairs of Feng Gongzi, and Miss Song still has a grudge." At that time, I was also desperate, so I sold him to Tingweisi, everyone was trying to survive. ”

Song Ran saw her eyes rolling slightly, and knew that she was playing ghost ideas again, so she interrupted her and said, "Miss Jiang knows that what I said is not about this. ”

Jiang Lili continued to pretend to be stupid: "What's the matter?" ”

"Did Miss Jiang forget it so quickly, you think about it, more than a month ago, Hangzhou Mansion."

"What Hangzhou Mansion? I've been listing in Yanyulou, how can I have time to go to Hangzhou? Miss Song must have recognized the wrong person. ”

Song Ran's expression was slightly cold: "You are still quibbling." ”

As soon as she came back from Zhejiang, she asked the mute to go to Yanyu Building to find Jiang Lili, and the people in the building told her that just a month ago, Jiang Lili suddenly disappeared, and the building also looked for her for a long time. The time when she left Yanyulou coincided with what happened in Zhejiang.

Jiang Lili looked at her for a long time, and suddenly shouted at the top of her voice: "Someone, it's rude!" ”

The corners of Song Ran's eyes couldn't help twitching.

When a big man heard her cry for help, he immediately rushed over, wanting to see righteousness and bravery, but when he saw the clothes on Song Ran's body, he immediately put away his sword and pulled out his heart to help, and persuaded the others who came over not to meddle.

Song Ran looked at Jiang Lili with a smile and said, "Miss Jiang, continue to shout, I'm afraid that no one will have enough to eat and support it, and dare to offend the person wearing this clothes." ”

Jiang Lili bit her lip, and immediately decided to change her strategy, pointing at Song Ran's back: "Miss Song, who do you see coming?" ”

Song Ran looked at her for a long time. She withdrew her fingers without changing her face, and changed her coquettish face again: "Miss Song has something to talk about, so let's make an appointment with a teahouse to have a good chat another day. ”

Xia Xiaoqiu led the horses of the two of them to chase here, and when she saw that Song Ran was confronting a delicate woman, she couldn't help but be confused.

Song Ran heard his voice and turned around and said, "Lord Xia." Turning his gaze back to Jiang Lili's face, he squinted his eyes and said, "Lord Shen was assassinated in Hangzhou Mansion, this person seems to know something, please escort her back to the Imperial Guard Division and hand her over to Lord Helan for good interrogation." ”

As soon as Xia Xiaoqiu heard that she was related to Shen Hanxi's assassination, she immediately lowered her eyes: "Yes, then you have to be interrogated." If it is true, Miss Song has made a great contribution today. ”

There was panic in Jiang Lili's eyes, but it was only for a moment.

Xia Xiaoqiu pulled out the rope from her waist and was about to tie her up, but suddenly heard a loud explosion sound. With that earth-shaking sound, a layer of strange fire fell on Jiang Lili's face, adding a bit of demonic aura to her gorgeous face.

Song Ran's heart sank, and he hurriedly looked in the direction where the voice came from.

I saw that the fire on the Huanhua River was full of fire, and the building boat that was originally parked in the middle of the river was engulfed in the raging flames, and the sound of explosion was still ringing, and the fire continued to spread outward.

Today, many people came to listen to the play, and the boat suddenly exploded and caught fire, and the scene immediately got out of control.

The whole world was filled with boiling human voices, but most of them were screams, and the people pushed and trampled on each other, and the scene was extremely chaotic. Song Ran stared blankly at this purgatory-like situation on earth, and suddenly a spirit stirred. Shen Hanxi asked Xia Xiaoqiu to pick her up because he had important matters to discuss with the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, that is, he was ...... now In the middle of the building boat on the Huanhua River.

Although there were seven or eight boats parked in the middle of the river, what if the one that exploded and caught fire was the one he was in?

She only felt that her ears were roaring, and the voice of the whole world was far away from her.

Xia Xiaoqiu was shouting something behind her, she couldn't hear it at all, the crowd hit her shoulder, and she couldn't feel the pain. She ran against the flow of people and desperately ran in the direction of the ferry.

In the midst of this unusual chaos, everyone was busy fleeing, and no one noticed that a string of strange laughter was coming from the throat of an old man. The laughter was gloomy and terrifying, as if it came from the Nine Hells......