Kobe, Japan, the corner of the harbor, the deserted rocky coast, the former tomb robber Kogi, said with trembling lips.

Qin Beiyang didn't understand yet: "Who did you kill?" ”

"Assassin!"

Together, Kogi and ama recount the story of Mt. Dharma two days ago, when the Assassins landed on the island to kill innocents, but fell into a trap in a cave. The ama emphasized that it was a pirate killing mechanism, and there was no chance of survival.

Qin Beiyang was unbelievable, the assassins were highly skilled, killing one person in ten steps, and not leaving a thousand miles behind. General Xiao Xu, the leader of the Beiyang warlords, was all played with in the palm of his hand. And this weak tomb robber Xiaomu has such great ability?

"Who can believe your words?"

"If you don't believe me, kill me, just please forgive my two children, they are Ouyang Sicong's biological son, Ouyang Anna's younger brother, and the last incense of the Ouyang family in Dharma Mountain - for Anna's sake!"

The sea lady was fearless, leaning her neck to face Qin Beiyang's Tang Dao, not like Xiao Mu who was greedy for life and afraid of death. Moreover, she also accurately saw Qin Beiyang's weakness - Ouyang Anna.

Xiao Mu suddenly said: "I can prove the specific appearance of the four assassins: the man with a scar on the right side of his face, his name is Ah Hai. The one who is strong and strong, his name is Tuhuan. There was also an old man with a beard, and they all called him 'Daddy'. In the end, it was the little girl you brought with you, Ayu, who was the master of the Assassins. ”

As soon as the words fell, Qin Beiyang's lips began to twitch, and he immediately slapped Xiao Mu!

Xiao Mu's cheeks were swollen, blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth, and the three-year-old boy he was holding in his arms immediately began to cry.

But what he said was right, Ah You is the master of the assassins, and this big secret is actually known to Xiao Mu?

"Sister Ayou" is the pain point in Qin Beiyang's heart, if she is really killed by Xiaomu...... before he pulled out this slap.

However, if the scar-faced assassin Ah Hai is also dead, there is also an assassin named "Daddy" - nine years ago, in the case of the destruction of the German Concession in Tianjin, they stabbed Qin Beiyang's adoptive parents to death, so Xiao Mu has completed revenge for himself!

Thinking of this, Qin Beiyang slapped Xiao Mu a second time with his backhand!

Xiao Mu was even more stunned, both cheeks were red and swollen and bleeding, and the sea girl helped him cover it in distress, glaring at Qin Beiyang angrily, meaning "Come at me, don't bully my man!" ”

Qin Beiyang sat down in a daze. The reason for his second slap was that he had sworn a poisonous oath to avenge his adoptive parents and slash the two assassins. Unexpectedly, Xiao Mu actually did this, so that he was destined to not be able to fulfill his vow.

He dragged Nine Colors back to his side and warned the town grave beast not to hurt Kogi and the ama. Qin Beiyang touched the two children, both of whom were Anna's half-brothers. Just for Ouyang Anna, we must also protect them.

Smelling the fishy smell of the Kobe fish market, the ama felt comfortable and did not shy away from others, unbuttoning the placket to breastfeed her youngest son.

Qin Beiyang turned his face away, looked at the unfamiliar foreign streets, and although he could understand the Chinese characters on the signboard, he couldn't understand a word. Xiao Mu grabbed his long hair and said, "Where are you going?" We just want to live! ”

"Speak quietly, if the Japanese find out, you are a runaway drifter, and you will be immediately repatriated."

Qin Beiyang was also afraid that he would be swept in, his nine colors had already attracted attention, and the Japanese who passed by would take a few more looks. In case the identity of impersonating Qi Yuanshan is exposed...... He's a wanted criminal from the Beiyang government.

It's dark.

Qin Beiyang took the nine colors, and Xiaomu and the ama each held a child, and walked aimlessly on the seaside of Kobe. The sea lady whispered that she had never left Dharma Mountain when she was so old, and she originally wanted to go to Shanghai. Unexpectedly, she came from a small island to an island country.

Suddenly, a series of Chinese words came from the dark shore-

"Underneath that shaky star is my homeland. That's where I was born. I have also sent eighteen autumns and winters under that star, and I will never see you again, my land. ”

They took a closer look, and sure enough, there was a young man lying on the reef by the sea.

Qin Beiyang said loudly: "Hey, don't kill yourself!" ”

The other party laughed: "How can I jump into the sea?" It's just that he was just scolded by the Japanese as a branch man, and he came to this beach to complain. ”

However, Qin Beiyang could see the tears in the corners of his eyes: "Are you an international student?" My name is Qin Beiyang. ”

"My name is Yuwen."

That year, Qin Beiyang was eighteen years old, Xiaomu was twenty years old, Hainu was twenty years old, Yuwen was twenty-two years old, and Jiuse was one thousand two hundred years old.

Yu Wen's wine woke up, and he asked in a Zhejiang accent: "What do you think of when you see this star?" ”

"I think of a girl, as if I saw her face, a pair of glass-colored eyes."

"Well, you're so affectionate."

Yuwen studied medicine at Nagoya No. 8 High School and had just returned from his hometown by the Fuchun River. There are still two months before school starts, so I will spend a few days in Kansai and other places.

The accent of the ama is similar to that of Yu Wen, and the two communicate in the local accent, and they can understand most of it. She saw that Yuwen's face was a scholar, so she said that she and Xiaomu were husband and wife, because she offended the bully in her hometown, she went to Japan, and she was not familiar with the place, and begged her fellow villagers from Zhejiang for help.

Yu Wen took them to the train station. Qin Beiyang exchanged the few silver dollars he had on his body for yen and bought a third-class ticket to Osaka for everyone.

Taking a train in Japan feels very different from China, at least it is quite tidy, no one makes a loud noise, and the passengers are polite, unlike the chaotic beggars at Beijing's Zhengyangmen railway station. Only the Japanese are short, and Qin Beiyang's entry into this state is like Greif who has entered the Lilliputia. The men here are short but not thin, and the strong muscles in the kimonos must be the result of physical training since childhood. Unlike the Chinese, who are either weak scholars or opium-smoking leprosy ghosts.

Along the way, Qin Beiyang and Yu Wen had a very happy conversation. Although he only studied until the third grade of primary school, Qin Beiyang read a lot of books in the underground palace and the "Heavenly Library", and was able to export chapters. Yu Wen is also a literary youth, especially good at classical poetry.

Qin Beiyang lied that he was a self-financed student, but because of his poor family, he has not been able to pay the tuition fees of the preparatory school.

Yuwen has a "Wen", and he will be a writer in the future; "Beiyang" is destined to be in danger and displaced.

The Hanshin Line is only 30 kilometers away, and before the butt is hot, it arrives at Osaka Station.

Osaka, the dream capital of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In front of the rows of Japanese-style buildings and shops, men and women wearing kimonos at night, and there is a towering stone wall of the castle to the southeast, which is Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle, but the castle tower has not yet been rebuilt.

I don't know where to stay tonight?

Yuwen is also a person who has no plan, and Shinma walked to the Four Heavenly Throne Temple. This thousand-year-old temple is surrounded by the bustling city of Osaka, just like the Jing'an Temple in Shanghai. Qin Beiyang bought a few rice balls on the street and ate them.

Shitennoji Temple. It is said to be the oldest temple in Japan, and it was built during the time of Prince Shotoku. Entering the middle gate, it is a five-storied pagoda, and there is indeed a legacy of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Disguised as a big dog's nine-colored, red mane once again attracted the attention of others. The tall Qin Beiyang is not like the Japanese, and quickly came to the Kirin Shrine next door.

There is a large red torii in front of you, which looks like the word "open", and it is a torii gate that can be seen everywhere in Japan. After passing through a stone lantern-guarded approach, the trees on both sides have been trimmed to create a natural wilderness.

Qin Beiyang remembered that when he was in Shanghai, Haneda Taishu visited the Dharma Mountain on the sea, and asked Ouyang Sicong to buy a young Qilin Town tomb beast, and also enshrined it in the Qilin Shrine of the Four Heavenly Kings Temple......

Entering the door with nine colors, isn't it self-defeating?

"Kirin!"

Tomb robber Kogi whispered that the main hall of the shrine enshrines a statue of a unicorn - a green bronze surface, a long neck, a dragon-like head and beard, and a pair of antlers, with four legs like horses' hooves or deer's hooves, which are somewhat different from the Chinese unicorns, more like a combination of a horse and a dragon.

Nine colors took a few steps back, not wanting to enter the main hall of the shrine. Perhaps, the unicorn and the unicorn can't meet? Just like in Chinese chess, the rules that two generals are not allowed to meet.

"Let's go!"

Qin Beiyang escaped from the Kirin Shrine with everyone.

In front of the main hall of Kirin Shrine, a young man in a kimono walked up, looking at the back of the Chinese under the stone lantern, and chanting the words in his mouth: "HATA? ”

Osaka night.

Hurriedly escaping from the Shitennoji Temple and Kirin Shrine, Yuwen asked puzzledly: "Beiyang, you seem to have seen a ghost?" ”

"Yes, I just saw a ghost! Can you believe it? I have yin and yang eyes, and you can see things that ordinary people can't see! ”

Qin Beiyang deliberately scared Yuwen, and even the sea girl and the two children were also scared.

It was late at night, wandering the streets of Osaka, and it was difficult to find a hotel, so I simply slept overnight. Fortunately, in the summer, the group of Chinese hid under the eaves of a monastery, surrounded by bamboo forests and rustling in the wind.

Qin Beiyang slept with nine colors in his arms, and Yu Wen chanted poetry to the moon. Xiao Mu hid away from Jiuse, maybe this small town tomb beast suddenly transformed in the middle of the night, and spit out a glass fireball that reduced him to ashes. Ouyang Sicong's two young sons, coupled with the vitality of his mother Haenyeo, can adapt to any environment. In the sinister and turbulent times, only such children can survive.

In the morning, the monks found them. There is not much incense here, there are many empty rooms, and the host takes in these strangers. Qin Beiyang, Yu Wen and Jiuse live in the same room. Xiaomu and the ama live with their children - there is nothing inconvenient, Japanese monks can get married and have children, and the temple already lives with nursing babies.

Qin Beiyang volunteered to do carpenter work for the temple. Japanese architecture and China have a mortise and tenon structure, and the difference is only in the shape and style. For example, in Japan, the floor is separated from the soil, and there are pillars under the house to support and suspend the air, which can avoid moisture and reptile invasion; The roofs of the high-class temples are not tiled, but made of bark or planks.

The host was highly satisfied with Qin Beiyang's craftsmanship and gave double the salary. The host has a high level of Chinese, no need for translation, and with a pen and paper, he can communicate general thoughts through the written conversation of Chinese characters.

Seven days later, Qin Beiyang earned a thick stack of yen. Yu Wen helped him find a language school, which was just enough to pay for two months' tuition. Most of my classmates are Chinese students or Koreans, and they often hear the dialects of various Chinese provinces, as well as Smecta one after another. After mastering the fifty-syllable diagram and simple vocabulary, according to the experience of learning German, he stopped talking with the temple presiding officer and insisted on practicing speaking.

Chinese are not used to sitting on the ground and tatami mats, but fortunately, Qin Beiyang has lived in Jingxi Camel Village for two years, and sleeping on a big kang every day is similar. He hid the Tang knife under his pillow every night, remembering the old incident of Guan Yu's sojourn in Cao Ying during the Three Kingdoms, and simply treated Jiuse as Mrs. Liu Bei to protect him.

Japanese food, unlike the Chinese thick oil red sauce, but mainly light, especially Kansai, Qin Beiyang is as sweet as a meal. Since he entered the underground palace at the age of nine, he has never eaten well, and he has grown so tall thanks to family inheritance.

The ama dresses up as a Japanese young woman and goes to work at the fish market. Born on an island, she is a master of killing fish and slicing them. In the hot summer, she went out early and returned to work late to support two children and a man.

Xiao Mu has nothing but digging graves. He said that he wanted to return to his old business, but found that the Japanese were all cremated, and there was not even a coffin in the tomb, so there was no place for tomb robbers. He spends his days at the temple, washing diapers for his two children. The ama really likes Kogi and is willing to raise him.

The woman on the island is really strong, Qin Beiyang thinks of Anna, a glass-eyed girl - sexy, independent, long-term, and indestructible in heart......

Midyear Festival, Obon, is a grand celebration in Japan after New Year's Day. Yuwen invited Qin Beiyang and Xiaomu to go to the hot springs together. Qin Beiyang agreed. The sea girl said to Xiao Mu heartily: "You are all suffocated in the temple, go out and have fun, I will take the two children well." ”

Three young men took the nine colors and took the train to Otsu's Okoto.

There are hot spring inns and bathhouses all over the place, and you can enjoy the autumn moon of Lake Biwa, look at the geisha walking by the streets, and think of Bai Juyi's "Pipa Xing". Soaking in a pool of dense open-air hot springs, Qin Beiyang has bare pectoral muscles and jade pendants, red antler-shaped birthmarks on both sides of his neck, and looks up at the starry sky. Jiu Se doesn't like water, crouches on the edge of the pool, complains and pities himself.

Xiao Mu didn't like to strip naked in front of men, so he covered his lower body in fear, and then looked at the missing half of the ring finger on his left hand, which was burned by the nine-colored glass fireball in the Tang Dynasty tomb in Bailuyuan.

Qin Beiyang noticed that Xiao Mu's left shoulder had a crescent-shaped scar, which at first glance looked like a pox scar from cowpox - Xiao Mu was born in a tomb robbery village in Henan Province, and it was impossible for him to have cowpox. What's more, Xiaomu's scar is bigger than ordinary cowpox, and under the crescent-shaped concave and convex, there is a circle, as if the sun and the moon shine together.

"What are you looking at?" Xiao Mu clasped his shoulders vigilantly, "This is the injury I suffered when I was a child. ”

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not the same kind of person as you."

"The same kind of people?"

Xiao Mu felt the deep malice of the straight men, he completely misunderstood, Qin Beiyang just said that he was not the same kind of person as the tomb robbers.

Then, Qin Beiyang rubbed Yu Wen's back: "Brother Yu, what has bothered you the most in the past few years in Japan?" ”

"Sinajin!"

"The Shina people?"

Yu Wen said with a sad face: "You see that you are good-looking, and I still have literary talent, no worse than Japanese boys." Japanese customs are not as good as those in China, women do not pay attention to chastity, and there is no such thing as giving and receiving kisses between men and women, so it is not difficult to spend the Spring Festival with young girls. But once we open our mouths to speak and expose the identity of Chinese, even if they don't say it on their lips, they will say 'Xi Najin' in their hearts! ”

"Why are you so inferior?"

"The Japanese despise the Chinese just as much as we despise pigs and dogs. The Japanese call the Chinese 'Shinaren', and the three characters 'Shina' are even worse in Japan than our scolding 'cheap thieves'! ”

The door to the bathhouse opened, and a cool breeze blew to my chest. The three girls came in, at first with bare thighs, and then with bare bodies, without a single strand of hair, laughing with each other in Japanese, and seeing the three boys soaking in the water, they didn't mind, like dumplings in the water, spring.

Eighteen-year-old Qin Beiyang felt hot all over his body, and he actually had a nosebleed......

Twenty-year-old Kogi, it's not the first time he's seen a Japanese girl's nakedness.

In Japan, there is a custom of bathing for men and women. Facing Bai Huahua's flesh and the arc of youth like a mussel shell, Qin Beiyang first stared intently, then closed his eyelids tightly, covered his body, and escaped from the hot spring in embarrassment.

At the door of the bathhouse, Qin Beiyang put on his pants, hugged the red mane of the town's tomb beast, and looked at the lights of the ten thousand homes in Lake Biwa. Xiao Mu also escaped, he felt that he would only like the ama of the opposite sex in his life.

Yu Wen looked up to the sky and laughed, hooked Qin Beiyang and Xiaomu's shoulders and said, "When I was in Tokyo, I had a classmate surnamed Guo, a native of Sichuan. He once went into the sea to swim and went ashore naked, surrounded by a group of naked Japanese ama. They praised Guo's white skin, laughter, and playfulness, but scared him away. Beiyang, do you have a favorite girl in China? ”

Qin Beiyang scratched his head and blushed: "I'm afraid I'm not worthy of her." ”

"Look at the morning and think about the king, don't miss the remnant of the sun." Yu Wen took out a fan with a song written on it, "Her name is Long'er, and I wrote a poem for her - there are still three points of fetish, two points of thinness and one point of madness." I was only worried about the grievances of the flowers, and wrote new poems to Begonia. ”

"Yuwen, I want to go to university in Japan! Just like you. ”

When Qin Beiyang was working at Peking University, he overheard many professors in class; In the Shijing Cave, he witnessed the debate of the seven masters. Now that I'm in Toyo Japan, if I don't learn a little knowledge, how can I be worthy of myself? Nine years ago, Qiu Desheng, the adoptive father who was assassinated, had the greatest hope for his children to go overseas to study at university. On the ship that came to Japan, the handsome and dashing classmate Zhou met by chance really made Qin Beiyang envious.

"That's because the cost of studying in Japan is cheaper than in Europe and the United States. Where do you want to study? Tokyo? But I don't like Tokyo at all! The best school in the near future is Kyoto Imperial University! ”

Kyoto?

Qin Beiyang has also heard that it is the thousand-year-old capital, the ancient Heianjing, just like Xi'an and Beijing's presence in China.

"Okay, I'm naturally fond of antiquities, so I'll go to Kyoto!"

"Imperial University is one of the top national universities in Japan, and it is difficult for Japanese people to get in. First of all, you need to learn Japanese, then you will be able to enter Kyoto Imperial University if you have excellent grades in three years. ”

"Three years?"

Qin Beiyang remembered that he had been in the underground palace for several years, and he had never even studied in middle school, not to mention that he was only eighteen years old, and studying for three years in Japan was considered a make-up class.

"Do you want to study liberal arts or science?"

"I want to study mechanics."

Yu Wen stretched his waist and said, "That's too difficult!" Japanese mechanics comes from Germany, and every student learns German. I was studying medicine at Nagoya No. 8 High School, and I also had to learn German, so I was going to vomit! ”

Qin Beiyang was secretly happy in his heart, German happened to be his best foreign language.

A Japanese girl came out of the hot spring, stepping on clogs, wearing a kimono, like a hibiscus out of the water, and throwing flattering eyes at the three Chinese teenagers. Yuwen, who was light and crazy, naturally went to talk to the girl, and went to the izakaya next door.

On the shore of Lake Biwa, only Qin Beiyang, Xiaomu, and the nine-colored ones are left......

Qin Beiyang grabbed Xiao Mu's arm and felt a layer of goosebumps: "Tell me about the little prince of the Tang Dynasty you saw in the coffin." ”

"The little prince of the Tang Dynasty - can I say, did I see your face?"

"Really?"

Xiao Mu looked at Qin Beiyang carefully: "...... a little There are some differences, he is smaller than you are now, and his snow-white skin is smooth, perhaps it is an illusion after death. ”

Qin Beiyang squeezed the pimples on his face: "What else?" ”

"He's a prince, and you're a craftsman."

Kogi didn't know the word "temperament", but that's what it meant.

"Do you still want to find the little prince? Let's be honest! ”

"Yes."

After being silent for a long time, Xiao Mu admitted, closed his eyes, as if returning to the underground palace, in the coffin, the boy who had been sleeping for thousands of years......

"I also want to find the little prince. Unfortunately, now his coffin and body are in the hands of the Assassins. Even if Ah Yu is dead! But the Assassins were not only those four men, but also the Heavenly Academy...... I don't know where? Perhaps, in Japan? ”

Qin Beiyang turned his head and stared at the eyes of the small town tomb beast: "If you see the little prince again, will you leave me and return to him?" ”

Jiuse nodded, after all, Qin Beiyang was not the real master.

"Where is the owner of your tomb, the little prince of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longqi, the king of Zhongnan County, now?" 10