Shanghai! Shanghai!

Five thousand miles away from the Qin Beiyang, a wild goose traveled south from Kulun and flew over the Gobi, Yinshan, the Yellow River, the Great Wall, the North China Plain, the Huai River, and the mouth of the Yangtze River, which is Shanghai on the banks of the Huangpu River.

Ouyang Anna's glass-colored eyes stared out of the window of the French Mission Hospital, and beyond the layers of roofs, she could see the huge circle of the Shanghai Hippodrome.

She lay on the bed in the delivery room, looking down at her belly, which was already high and bulging, like a huge tomb, giving birth to not the underground palace and coffin, but the womb and fetus......

Pregnant in October, counting from the North Pole last summer, the expected date of delivery is today - the ninth year of the Republic of China, June 22, 1920 in the solar calendar.

According to the horoscope of Westerners, born on this day is Cancer. According to the Chinese zodiac, this child belongs to the monkey. Let's talk about the 24 solar terms, today is the summer solstice. "Wait for the antlers to be solved; Second, the cicadas begin to sing; Three and a half summers. "It means that the hot summer has arrived, when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, the longest day and the shortest night in the entire Northern Hemisphere, which is the opposite of the winter solstice.

She had never received a letter from Qin Beiyang—when the handwritten letter from the Harbin Post Office was delivered to the Red House of National Peking University, Ouyang Anna and Qi Yuanshan had already arrived in Shanghai.

Before leaving Beijing, she disposed of the lost treasures of Dharma Mountain on the sea, donated the most valuable cultural relics to the Department of History of Peking University, and sold the rest to antique dealers in Beijing in exchange for more than 10,000 silver dollars - this money is enough to settle down in Shanghai and give her children a worry-free childhood.

Back in Shanghai, Anna found that the dozens of houses she had bought two years ago had all increased in value, and the value of the Earl of Damour Hill's fund was far more than one million taels of silver.

She has an empty apartment on Xiafei Road in the French Concession, near a French hospital, where she can live and give birth. She bought a piano and played Tchaikovsky and Liszt in her spare time, which the foreign doctor said was "prenatal education".

Although Qi Yuanshan is a newlywed husband, he has never slept in the same bed with his wife. The apartment has two bedrooms, and the well water does not interfere with the river water, like roommates who share a house under the same roof. But every time she goes to the hospital for a check-up and goes out to buy supplies for pregnant women and babies, Qi Yuanshan will accompany her, diligently carrying bags and water, and taking care of her. The female nurse praised him as a good husband and father, and envied Anna for having a tall and handsome husband. In the dead of night, they rarely spoke, just chatted about the past. But there is a taboo - Qin Beiyang cannot be mentioned, Qi Yuanshan is afraid that Anna will not be able to hold back her tears.

That night, she felt a violent fetal movement...... The little guy in the belly is coming out, and the kicks are so powerful, I'm afraid it's a strong boy, just like his father. It was almost dawn before Ouyang Anna fell asleep for a short while, and in just a few minutes, she dreamed of Qin Beiyang, dreaming that he was wearing Mongolian clothes, riding a black horse, crossing the Gobi at night alone, and the geese flew over the moonlight and came to the far south. Suddenly, the wild goose turned into nine colors, and this small town tomb beast actually gave birth to a pair of wings, like a four-winged angel gliding against the wind, until it flew to the French Concession in Shanghai, and the deer roared and smashed through the window and rushed into her belly......

She woke up with a start, hugging her belly as if she were hiding a town grave beast.

Suddenly, Anna was especially scared, could it be that it was not a human being that was born, but a little monster? Like nine colors?

Qi Yuanshan heard her screams and rushed into the house, she didn't dare to say that dream - it must be the child's own father dreaming in the underworld.

She only then noticed that the amniotic water had broken, followed by violent contractions, and then redness. Qi Yuanshan immediately carried his wife on his back, walked down the stairs steadily, and entered the French Mission Hospital next door.

Ouyang Anna lay on the hospital bed and looked out the window. Qi Yuanshan clenched her hand, and the French doctor and the Chinese midwife both came and drove the anxious husband out.

Labor lasted two hours. The first child at the age of 20 needs to suffer a little. The pain of a woman giving birth is the extreme of all pain, and Anna cried to death, with tears in her eyes. For a few seconds, she wondered if she was dying. In 1920, whether in China or Europe, most girls got married and had children at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and many died in childbirth, either the mother survived and the child died, or the opposite, or the mother and child died together, just like Hemingway's "Farewell! The ending of Weapons.

Finally, just like a tomb robber opening the door of the tomb chamber and splitting open the thousand-year-old coffin to remove the bones of the tomb owner, Anna's child was born.

The steaming little baby covered with amniotic fluid cried in the hands of the midwife, and its wrinkled pink skin looked like a skinned kitten.

Ouyang Anna was already exhausted, but she still stretched out her hand, and a thought passed through her heart - she was no longer a girl, but a mother.

The newborn baby was placed in her arms after the umbilical cord was cut, and she carefully looked at the face. The baby has just opened his eyes and looked at the world curiously, and it seems that he also has a pair of glass-colored eyes? There are some curly fluff on the top of his head, and his eyebrows and eyes are still squeezed together, so he can't see who he looks like?

"Brother or sister?"

She didn't have the strength to move her head and neck to look at the baby's lower body, and the midwife whispered, "It's a beautiful sister!" ”

This sentence is not congratulatory, but carries a little regret. At that time, people were unhappy when they heard that it was their sister, and some mothers even cried bitterly on the spot, afraid that they would be abused by their husbands and mothers-in-law when they went back.

Ouyang Anna thought in her heart - it's a pity, the rules of the tombsmith clan are to pass on men not women, and the skills of the old Qin family and the tomb beasts that have been passed down for more than 3,000 years have finally been completely broken.

However, this child, who was born in the French Mission Hospital in Shanghai, had a much better fate than Qin Beiyang, who was born in the ancient cemetery palace of the Tang Dynasty.

"What a strange birthmark."

The French doctor spoke, turning the baby girl's back to Anna. At the junction between the back of the neck and the shoulders, there are a pair of antler-shaped red birthmarks, like two flames that soar into the sky, burning on the pink skin.

Ouyang Anna had tears in her eyes and kissed the pair of antlers - Qin Beiyang also had a birthmark of the same shape and color on the back of his neck.

There is no doubt that she is the daughter of Qin Beiyang, and the genes of the gravesmith clan flow in her veins.

Everything was dealt with, and Qi Yuanshan walked into the delivery room. He smiled, sincerely, as if he was seeing his own daughter. The little baby smiled too, naturally thinking that he was his father.

"Can I hold the baby?"

Anna smiled and nodded.

He held the baby up: "I swear, I'll treat her well!" By the way, Anna, did you think of a name for her? ”

Qi Yuanshan brought a brush and letter paper, and Ouyang Anna dipped it in ink and wrote two handsome fly-headed letters-

Nine colors

"How do you use the name of the town's grave beast?"

"Last night I dreamed of nine colors, which flew from the moonlight of the Gobi to my belly and became my daughter."

"I see, Nine Colors!" Qi Yuanshan remembered that the tomb beast in the town was also buried in the crater with Qin Beiyang, so he didn't want to mention these sad things anymore, and teased the little girl with his fingers, "You see, she likes her name very much, the girl of nine colors must be different." ”

Suddenly, Anna wrote another surname in front of "Nine Colors" - Qin.

Qi Yuanshan saw these three words on the paper, and he didn't care whose surname the child was.

Ouyang Anna shook her head suddenly, and immediately crossed out the word "Qin" and changed it to "Qi".

"Qi Jiuse?" He uttered his last name in a trance, "Is this appropriate?" ”

She kissed her daughter on the cheek again and said, "Well, Yuanshan, she is your daughter now, and she must be called your father." If she doesn't have the surname Qi, she won't have a father and her life won't be happy. ”

Two days later, Ouyang Anna took her daughter out of the hospital and returned to the apartment for confinement. The nanny said that it was rare to see such a healthy baby girl as Jiuse, with a little beast-like vitality, and definitely more strength than many boys. Anna's milk is abundant, and she sleeps with her daughter every night, except to avoid Qi Yuanshan when breastfeeding.

This month, another civil war broke out in Beijing. Qi Yuanshan is glad that he is in Shanghai, but he still cares about the current situation and collects various newspapers every day. On July 3, Zhang Zuolin and Cao Kun sent a telegram to the whole country, listing Xu Shuzheng's six major crimes -- bringing disaster to the country and the people, betraying the country and flattering foreigners, controlling political authority, sabotaging reunification, killing the superiors, and bullying the master with slaves...... The president dismissed Xiao Xu from his post as the envoy to the northwest, Xiao Xu was furious, issued a general attack order, and the two sides fought a bloody battle from Langfang to Gaobeidian. Wu Peifu, a rising star in the direct line, defeated Xiao Xu, the general trend of the Anhui family has gone, Duan Qirui resigned, and the Anfu Congress was dissolved. Xiao Xu hid in the Japanese legation, hid in a box, and escaped arrest and fled to Japan......

On the day of the nine-colored full moon, Qi Yuanshan set up a banquet at home and invited a few friends in Shanghai to celebrate. Everyone praised Jiuse's beauty, and some people actually said that she looked like Qi Yuanshan, and sure enough, her daughter was like her father, so he could only nod awkwardly and admit it.

At this time, the postman delivered a special express letter from Beijing, stamped with the fire paint stamp of the War Department. He took it apart and glanced at it, his face solemn. Anna came over with her daughter in her arms, put her arm around him and asked, "Yuanshan, what did you say in the letter?" Tell me. ”

"I was given a new position at the War Department, but not in Beijing, but in Xi'an, and I will leave next month."

"Xi'an?"

Ouyang Anna remembered the Bailuyuan outside Xi'an City that Qin Beiyang had talked about countless times, as well as the tomb of the little prince of the Tang Dynasty.

Qi Yuanshan frowned: "It's too far away from Shanghai, if I go to Xi'an, who will take care of your mother and daughter?" ”

"I'm your wife, I'll go with you with Nine Colors!"