A month later, at the tail of midsummer, Ouyang Anna held her two-month-old daughter and followed Qi Yuanshan to Xi'an by train.

In the bumpy soft sleeper box, like a boat on the sea, she breastfeeds her daughter and looks out the car window. Leaving Jiangnan in August, the late rice in the paddy fields is like waves connecting the sky, and the shepherd boy rides on the back of a buffalo and plays the flute. After Nanjing and Xuzhou, the rice fields gradually turned into wheat fields, and the golden land was about to burn under the poisonous sun. Crossing most of the Central Plains, get off at Luoyang, and the Longhai line is temporarily repaired here. They were going to hire a carriage to enter Shaanxi.

The first time I went to Henan, in this sacred capital of Wu Zetian, presumably the owner of the tomb beast of the town, Li Longqi, the king of Zhongnan County, also grew up in the Luoyang Palace of Wu Zhou. Today, Luoyang is no longer a scene of the Tang Dynasty, but a dilapidated old city of the late Qing Dynasty.

Walking out of Luoyang Railway Station, Ouyang Anna saw a back, a thin young man, wearing a dusty civilian coat, where did she seem to have seen it? Next to him was a young woman, who wore few clothes in the summer, and her charming figure could be seen from behind, dragging two little boys with shaved heads, the older one was four or five years old, and the younger one was about three years old. They were like a family of four, carrying large bags and small bags, and had just gotten off the train.

Anna quickened her pace with her daughter in her arms and walked around in front of them, first recognizing the young woman's face, the ama of the Dharma Mountain in the East China Sea.

The two little boys are her half-brother, Ouyang Sicong's illegitimate son, Anna remembers their names: the eldest is called Ouyang Qiaolu, and the second is called Ouyang Lianfan.

The man next to the sea woman, with a white and thin face, looks like a small student in the rural theater troupe, with only promising flashing eyes......

"Xiaomu?"

Anna called out his name. The young tomb robber, who recognized Anna's glass-colored eyes, seemed to have returned to the Dharma, imprisoned in his cave cellar.

Under the scorching sun at the end of August, in front of the railway station in Luoyang, Central Plains, Ouyang Anna, Qi Yuanshan, Xiao Mu, and Hai Girl, four pairs of eyes looked at each other, and they couldn't believe that they would meet here.

The last time Qi Yuanshan saw Xiao Mu was in Japan, in the Xu Fu Underground Palace of Yoshino Ancient Tomb, and everyone thought that this daring little tomb robber was dragged into the water by a kappa and drowned after killing the immortal Qin Dynasty Xu Fu.

The two little boys of the sea lady have long forgotten their half-sister Ouyang Anna, but they care about the baby in the swaddling clothes - Jiuse also saw the two brothers and grinned, these two boys are related to her by blood, and they are her uncles according to their generation.

Xiao Mu believes that the child in Anna's arms must be the seed of Qi Yuanshan. Without saying a word, he grabbed the ama's arm, turned around and drilled into the crowd.

"Stop!"

Ouyang Anna was about to chase Xiaomu, and almost forgot that she was still holding her daughter in her arms. Xiao Jiuse was frightened by this loud shout and cried on the spot. The ama fled with her head bowed in shame, took her two babies with her, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Qi Yuanshan had a pistol hidden on his body, but he didn't dare to use it in a crowded place, grabbed Anna and said, "Don't chase!" ”

"They're still alive!" Anna coaxed the child and said, "You have to get rid of the wood, he's a big disaster." ”

Qi Yuanshan took off the big cap of the Beiyang officer, and his head was full of sweat: "Why do they also appear here?" ”

"It seems that Xiaomu is from Luoyang, and he has robbed tombs for a living, so he must have brought the sea girl back to his hometown. That's it, why do you want to take my two younger brothers with you? She glanced at her infant daughter, "Forget it, the child can't do without his mother, I don't care." ”

After a day of playing in Luoyang, Qi Yuanshan hired a big carriage. His wife and daughter sat in the carriage, and he and the coachman sat in the front of the carriage and walked on the official road full of rutted marks. Turning over the ancient battlefield of Kunshan Mountain, from Xin'an to Mianchi, are the place names in the ancient books, until the majestic Sanmenxia, the water of the Yellow River comes up from the sky, rushes to the sea and does not return.

Xiao Jiuse loves to see the scenery of the Central Plains, even if the Tongshan is wet, the yellow sand is everywhere, and in the caves on the high slopes of the loess, the hungry people who are not clothed are dying. Anna distributed the food she had to her mother and children who were dying of starvation. Since the establishment of the Republic of China, the Bai Lang Righteous Army has killed thousands of miles of red land, and now there are droughts, locust plagues and floods in the Yellow River one after another, and what is even more terrible is the military disaster of the Beiyang warlords.

After the Tong Pass, it is the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan in the pass. Bandits are rampant everywhere, and Qi Yuanshan must always be vigilant. After Huashan, Weinan and Lintong, a bucket-shaped pyramid rises on the flat ground - the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, and behind it is the black Lishan Mountain.

Crossing the almost dry Bahe River, the Baqiao has long been nowhere to be found, only a row of weeping willows by the river remains, which is the "Baqiao Folding Willow" that the ancients gave to each other. Qi Yuanshan has seen the East Gate Tower of Xi'an, and a huge five-color flag is waving in the wind.

When he gave up further studies at the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School, dropped out halfway, and stayed in China to take care of his wife and children, everyone said that Qi Yuanshan's future was buried by himself. However, the power leaning towards the government and the opposition collapsed, and Lao Duan and Xiao Xu went into the wilderness, which suddenly gave him a great opportunity. Wang Shizhen, the "Dragon of the Beiyang", wrote a letter to Wu Peifu and recommended his godson Qi Yuanshan, believing that this son could be a great responsibility. Qi Yuanshan was appointed as the liaison commissioner of the Ministry of the Army, promoted to the rank of major, and rushed to Xi'an to prepare for the establishment of the liaison office, which was an important step in the career of Huang Tengda

Anna leaned out of the carriage and said, "White Deer Plain! ”

The coachman is far away, but a few miles away, rises up the loess plateau, surrounds the two rivers of Chanba left and right, like a giant tomb, from the Qinling Mountains and Zhongnan Mountain to the north, the dagger is inserted into the Guanzhong Plain, the yellow sky is thick soil, and the momentum is extraordinary.

Xiao Jiuse stretched out his little hand like a radish and pointed to the hill, as if that was his hometown.

Along the winding path, the carriage climbed up the Bailu Plain with difficulty, and the wheat waves rolled under the scorching sun, and the sun made Qiyuan Mountain almost suffer from heat stroke. Anna was in high spirits, got out of the car with her daughter, and asked the farmer who was working in the fields, where was the grave of the little prince of the Tang Dynasty?

They don't look like tomb robbers, the farmer pointed out the direction, passing through the Nanling of the Empress Dowager Bo of the Western Han Dynasty, facing the Zhongnan Mountain in the rear, a high slope surrounded by wilderness, is the tomb of the Tang Dynasty in Bailuyuan.

Exactly twenty years ago, in the year of Gengzi, the first year of the twentieth century, Qin Beiyang was born in this tomb. Just after the full moon, he left Bailuyuan, walked a lifetime, almost circumnavigated the earth, and finally failed to return here. And the seed he sowed, the nine-colored daughter named after the small town tomb beast in this big tomb, who had just turned two months old, went home in his place.

Anna kissed the infant child and knelt in front of the grave of the little prince of the Tang Dynasty. Qin Beiyang's mother and nine-colored grandmother are also buried here. She looked at the jade ring on the middle finger of her left hand, which also came from the underground palace under this tomb. The daughter stared at her glass-colored eyes, and her little head was thoughtful.

The sunset shines on the barren grass of the tomb, the Guanzhong Plain and the Qinling Mountains are vivid, the souls in the tomb seem to be whispering in the ear, Ouyang Anna holds the nine colors, and recites Li Shangyin's quatrain, "Feel uncomfortable at night, drive to the ancient plain." The sunset is infinitely good, just near dusk. ”