Time flies, and two and a half months have passed.

The eighth year of the Republic of China, the eighth year of Taisho in Japan, and the year 1919 in the Western calendar.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, Kyoto experienced a heavy snowfall that had not been seen in decades. Chinese students had a simple Chinese New Year's Eve meal in the dormitory, and some were drunk and homesick and weeping. Qin Beiyang consciously grew up by another year.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the ancient capital suddenly became a snow country, white and covered in silver.

Qin Beiyang took Jiu Se and a long-handled umbrella with a Tang knife hidden on his back and went to Lanshan. In the era of "The Tale of Genji", the imperial family and ministers were boating on the Dayan River and admiring the maple leaves of Arashiyama, and there must have been a light source with a graceful dress. Arashiyama transplants the cherry blossoms of Yoshino in Nara, and every year in April from Togetsu Bridge to Nakanoshima, the cherry blossoms are dazzling, and the white clothes are better than the snow, and they fly down for thousands of years.

Japan's Meiji Restoration abolished the lunar calendar, and New Year's Day replaced the Spring Festival on the Gregorian calendar. On the first day of the first lunar month, Arashiyama is deserted. One man and one beast, stepping on the snow came to Tenryuji, the first of the five major Zen temples in Kyoto, the era of the Ashikaga clan, founded by the Rinzai master Yumetsu Shushi.

Sure enough, Haneda Taishu did not miss the appointment, and was waiting for Qin Beiyang at the gate of Tianlong Temple.

This is their agreement at the izakaya - about Professor Yamamoto's "soul machine".

Haneda Taiki squatted down and looked at Nine Colors and said, "Don't worry, I don't have any desire for it. In the whole world, you are the only one who is the master of the tomb beast in the young Qilin Town.

Qin Beiyang cut to the chase: "Mr. Haneda, what you promised me ......"

"Don't worry! Please be patient until tonight! I'm ready to stop. ”

The two of them talked and talked, passed the north gate of Tianlong Temple, passed through the dense forest and cultivated bamboo, and the air was so cold that the bone marrow shivered.

Suddenly, Qin Beiyang felt a murderous aura coming from behind him......

"Be careful!"

As soon as Haneda turned around, the blade was only twenty centimeters away from the center of his eyebrows, and he couldn't afford to think, so he could only close his eyes and sit and wait to die.

Clang......

The crisp sound of metal clashing, sparks splashing onto the eyebrows. A black umbrella suddenly crossed Haneda's head to block the fatal blow.

The face of a strange man was revealed in the bamboo forest, but he was wearing a black school uniform, and raised his long knife to stab the second blow.

Qin Beiyang took out the Tang knife from the handle of the umbrella and blocked it again. The third blow slashed at Qin Beiyang's neck. Japanese swordsmanship pays attention to killing with one blow, and it is not allowed to return the phone at all, and the third sword is already annoyed and angry. He dodged lightly, and the Tang knife slammed into the back of the opponent's knife, and smashed to the ground at the moment.

The Assassin, who had lost his blade, fled in a hurry, leaving behind two lines of stray snow footprints.

Qin Beiyang was about to chase with a knife, but wondered if there would be other assassins? Only Haneda Taiki can be left to protect it.

"Who wants to kill you?"

He was convinced that the Assassin he had just done was completely different from the Assassin he had encountered in China, both in terms of appearance, weapons, and methods. If it was an assassin with an ivory handle dagger, so close, let alone Haneda, I am afraid that Qin Beiyang would also die by cutting his throat.

"During the Taisho era, there were two kinds of political forces in Japan, one was the military department, and they were both stubborn madmen! The other faction was the forces of Democrus. The Japanese Empire was in its heyday, like a cloud on Sakagami, climbing the peak of 10,000 feet to see that glorious auspicious cloud, perhaps fleeting! It is a civilized and civilized country with a British-style constitutional monarchy. No matter how much you hate it, today Japan is a model in Asia, the only yellow people who can stand on an equal footing with the white powers. ”

Looking at Haneda Taiki's proud eyes, Qin Beiyang thought of the backward Beiyang China, and was so ashamed that he was ashamed.

"The Haneda family belongs to Democrus, the force of democracy?"

"His Royal Highness Saionji Konozo is a family friend of the Haneda family, recommended by him for the last few prime ministers, and is also the last guardian of Japan's democratic politics. The veteran of the Meiji Restoration, the father of the Japanese Army, and Marshal Aritomo Yamagu, was at odds with us. ”

No matter what country it is, political struggles are always complicated and tragic, Qin Beiyang remembered the Anfu Club and the Anfu Congress that Xiao Xu painstakingly managed, as well as the congressmen who were serial assassinated.

Haneda Taiki took out a small notebook and wrote a line with a pen - the White Rainbow Incident.

"Isn't that a Chinese idiom? Nie Zheng stabbed Han puppet, Bai Hong ran through the sun! ”

"Jing Ke crossed the water to assassinate the King of Qin, and he had a white rainbow through the sun. Last year, Japan sent troops to Vladivostok and Siberia, which led to a nationwide 'rice riot'. And the Osaka Asahi Shimbun, which I sponsored, wrote: "I, the Japanese Empire, who have been proud of our own golden ou without damage, are facing a terrible final judgment. The brains of the silent diners flashed to the ominous omen of the white rainbow. ’”

In the last paragraph of Japanese, Qin Beiyang felt a little struggling to hear.

"The government said that the 'day' of the white rainbow was the Son of Heaven, and it was to incite the people to assassinate the emperor. The reporter and publisher of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspaper was sentenced. The thugs smashed the newspaper office, saying that they wanted to take my head. I'm ready to jump off the Kiyomizudera stage! ”

"The police don't care?"

"Three years ago, my father was running for the Diet and was hacked to death by a group of soldiers on the streets of Tokyo. They hated political parties and bureaucrats and wanted to turn Japan into a country ruled by the military. ”

"Isn't that just like China?"

Qin Beiyang remembered that the Beiyang warlords were all soft eggs who were cruel to their compatriots and flattering to the great powers, but if the Japanese military controlled the regime, it would be completely different......

"If that day really comes, Japan will invade China on a large scale!"

"You're a good Japanese."

"Beiyang, do you think the Japanese are all bad? Remember, in this world, there are never bad people, only bad thoughts! ”

They stepped on deep snow and climbed to the top of Arashiyama. Looking out at the Kyoto Basin, you can distinguish the roof of the Imperial Palace, and the view looks beyond Mt. Hiei and a mirror-like lake Biwa.

The setting sun is sinking from behind the mountain, spreading red blood on the white snowy fields.

Haneda pointed to the north side of Arashiyama and said, "Beiyang, do you see that hillside?" I'm here to do my experiments in Sagano tonight. ”

They chose another trail down the mountain, along the northern slope of Arashiyama to Sagano.

When you arrive at the bamboo forest of Nonomiya Shrine, stone lanterns are lit on both sides of the path. In the dreamlike snow and mist, a bright red figure flashed, like a blood-red falling flower, and sprinkled with a handful of white salt, shooting out a purple and red light......

Light.

Qin Beiyang's eyes were stabbed twice, and Jiu Se also stood up and crouched, blocked by this little girl.

She looked back, her little pale face and a pair of slender black eyes. Although it is dressed in red, it is the style of a poor family, and it is not comparable to the kimono of a rich family. She was dressed too little, with a bare white neck and young beast-like calves. The stone lantern illuminated the almost transparent cheeks, and two clusters of red froze.

Jiuse flicked her mane and ran towards her, and the little girl dodged into the bamboo forest and disappeared.

"Is it a human or a ghost?"

"It is said that in this bamboo forest, there are often resentful spirits of girls at night." Haneda Taiki came to a secluded valley, "Sagano, it was first developed by our ancestors of the Qin clan. There was also a Sagayama near Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty where Tang Dezong was buried. When the Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty saw this mausoleum, he brought the name of Saga back to Japan. The famous Emperor Saga, hence the name. ”

It is surrounded by dense mountains and forests, and the middle is covered with snow. Taiki Haneda high-fived the sky and signaled......

Several figures appeared in the woods, each carrying a lantern, illuminating each other's faces. Among them, there was a bald-headed man, Qin Beiyang looked at it, and it turned out to be Professor Yamamoto of Kyoto University. The rest were young men, dressed in black student attire, presumably students of the professor.

But there are a few that are noticeably taller than the average Japanese, with broad shoulders, oddly shaped hats, and sticks that are held in their hands, either long or short.

The new moon on the first day of the first lunar month, like the eyebrows of a gardener, breaks through the thick clouds like white lotuses and hangs in the sky of Sagano.

"Let's go!"