After cleaning the two-layer bottom warehouse where the dirt on the ground accumulated at least half a finger thick and could hardly go down to the feet, and then fed the slaves who were locked in the cage in turn, and cleaned the stairs along the way, and finally ate a definitely not good dinner at the bottom, that is, a disgusting salted dried fish with a bowl of white batter soup, after all this, when Gu Xuan walked out of the cabin and came to the deck, he found that night had fallen.

The temperature difference between day and night on the sea is very large, and the sun is basking during the day, even if it is bare-chested, but when the sea breeze blows at night, it is cold and biting, although Gu Xuan, whose body has basically recovered, actually doesn't care about such a little alternation of cold and heat, but in order not to attract attention, he still rubbed his bare arms, and hurriedly went back to the bottom to get a double-layer jacket issued by the Qiankun Chamber of Commerce to the sailors below.

Although the sailors below are not forbidden to come to the deck at night to watch the wind, but because the sea breeze at night is really frozen, plus everyone has a lot of things to do during the day, they are busy all day, in fact, they are very tired, and they get up early the next day, so they need to hurry up and rest, so there is basically no one on the deck at night, even if they are guarded in turn, they are all hiding in a relatively warm greenhouse, and observing through a layer of more translucent glass.

That's actually fine.

Gu Xuan stood alone in the stern of the boat, leaning his back against the sturdy iron railing, his elbows propped up on it, quietly looking up at the vast night sky overhead.

Bit by bit, scattered and disorderly, it seems to be irregular, but if you look closely, it seems that there are all kinds of mysterious patterns hidden in the stars, which are actually very far away from the world, but they are the most wonderful treasures in the world, and if you are not careful, you will fall into it.

The boundless starry sky always leads people to reverie, the endless, the unknown world that is worth exploring with all their life's strength, throughout the ages, I don't know how many sages have been attracted to go to it one after another, and if you like it, how can you and me?

"Alas. ”

Gu Xuan suddenly lowered his head, and couldn't help but sigh heavily, no matter how beautiful the starry sky is, it's a pity that he is still a person in the world after all, and everything he thinks about is a human thing, for example, what has become of the situation in the capital at this time, without him, will Da Liang be chaotic, and without this backbone, what will happen to those people.

The answer is that I don't know, everything is unknown until I see the truth with my own eyes.

It's just that he knows that the situation is likely to be getting worse slowly, and he has enough ability to change, but when he has to stand outside the chessboard and wait for the pawn to fall, it is the most torturous moment, he really wants to return to Da Liang at the moment, and save everything with his own hands, but now he has to go with the flow at sea, and the day of return in the future is still far away.

Father, the queen, mother, Mr. Lu, Ji Yaoling, Ma Mingze, Ma Erhu, Morobeti, Lao Huo, so many people around him, some have died, and some don't know what the situation is, their originally stable fate has undergone earth-shaking changes because of his temporary woman's benevolence, when he thought of this, his heart couldn't help but pinch up, and the whole person grabbed the railing, and it became difficult to breathe.

In the past, he was so naïve, full of thought that he just had to stay behind his second brother and do things silently, and many things on the road of life did not have to go against his own heart, but when he walked out of the capital and became a powerful party, more and more people began to revolve around him, and one of his decisions could affect the fate of more and more people, he finally slowly understood what responsibility is.

After going through a lot of things, he finally understood that sometimes he may have to lower his bottom line, so that he can make the people around him live better, even if it is a difficult decision, he must do it, he often thinks, maybe the world needs not absolute justice at all, but a king who knows how to make trade-offs, dares to make decisions that everyone hopes for in their hearts, but cannot speak, and at the same time is not afraid of infamy.

But in fact, it was only now that he finally really understood what the real king was, that is, the person who dared to fight against the enemy, himself, and everything in order to defend his subjects.

Think about it, if he had dared to recapture the net with a thunderbolt, and then completely wipe out the forces under the hands of several ambitious brothers, instead of slowly competing with them by upright means and hoping that they would give up voluntarily, then none of this would have happened.

He was very self-reproachful, especially when he dreamed back at midnight, he saw the faces of those who sacrificed for himself, and even felt so guilty that he wanted to give up, and be an ordinary sailor in peace on this sea where no one knew him, abandon everything in the past, forget the pain of the past, let go of responsibility, and sink.

But that's not good, because he is Gu Xuan, and in his body, he has already borne the hopes of too many people, so how can he give up everything with peace of mind?

Living for others is a very tiring thing after all, but maybe this is your own fate, and you can't escape it.

He rolled over, leaned on the sturdy railing, and lowered his head as the black tide rose and flowed below, moving the whole ship up and down with the waves. It must be said that he may indeed be a man who was destined to be extraordinary by nature, even if it was his first time at sea, but he still immediately adapted to life on land, never seasick, and was more stable on board than those old sailors who had been on board for many years.

He breathed in the cold sea breeze and muttered to himself in his heart, I hope everything goes well, in that case, he can come back again by the ship of the Qiankun Chamber of Commerce, no matter what, as long as he returns to the Western Continent, then everything will be easy.

"What are you thinking?"

Just as Gu Xuan lowered his head and pondered silently, an extremely familiar voice suddenly sounded next to him, and then, a short figure with a thick beard braided into cute pigtails slowly walked over from the bow of the boat.

Under the bright moonlight, Gu Xuan's eyes widened suddenly, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "Old 。。。。。。 ”

But in an instant, he had already woken up, and hurriedly changed his tone and shouted, "Uncle Dong, why are you here?" ”

At that moment just now, he did see Lao Huo walking towards him, maybe it was just because he missed each other too much and hallucinated, or maybe it was just because the two of them did look a little similar, especially in terms of personality, there were a lot of points to figure out.

The earthlings who were called Uncle Dong immediately snorted lightly, and said: "I'm not old, stinky boy, one by one 'uncle' during the day is good, it turns out that I have always been old in my heart." ”

Seeing this, Gu Xuan hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile: "Where do I dare to dislike you, Uncle Dong, right, what's the matter, you can't sleep and come to blow the wind?"

Uncle Dong stretched out a hand, gently rubbed his head, and said slowly: "Hey, I want to drink in the middle of the night, but no one wants to accompany me, a bad old man, so I have to go out for a walk, look at the stars, and look at the moon." ”

Gu Xuan didn't know what he meant, so he immediately said, "Then why don't you let me have two drinks with you?"

Not to mention that Uncle Dong's temperament is indeed good for appetite, and there are too many hidden benefits from making friends with him, plus Gu Xuan really wants to drink some wine at the moment, which can not only dispel the cold air contaminated at night, but also chat to relieve the depression in his heart.

Uncle Dong immediately stretched out his hand, looking like he wanted to shoot something, but he immediately took it back with a sneer, and said in a somewhat embarrassed tone: "Hey, okay, good boy, let's go, hurry up, follow me in." ”

As the first mate on the ship, second only to the existence of the captain, Uncle Dong naturally has a separate room of his own, and the place is not small, even if it is on the ship, but it is not inferior to the luxury mansion on land, three before and after, the innermost is the rarest wine warehouse of his old man's house, and the middle is where he sleeps, covered with animal skin cushions, which is the most comfortable, and at the front, it is usually used to entertain guests, and the decoration inside is also all according to the preferences of the local people, rough, atmospheric, full of a heroic and primitive atmosphere.

Gu Xuan followed the other party into the house one after the other, Uncle Dong turned around and closed the door, and then greeted very warmly: "Come on, come on, Bao, you sit first, I'll go in and move the wine." ”

Gu Xuan was not polite, he immediately agreed, found a low stone bench, sat down in an orderly manner, and then after glancing left and right, he began to use the bottles and jars on the table to prepare the spicy sauce that Lao Huo had taught him, a kind of spicy sauce that the people of the earth people like to use to entertain guests, and then found the bacon hanging on the wall, leaned over and grabbed it, and put it in the middle of the table.

After doing all this, I didn't wait for long, and I saw Uncle Dong walking steadily from the back room with two wine jars in one hand, and when he looked at the plates on the table, he suddenly smiled and said: "Bao, you really know us very well, in fact, listening to your accent, I have already guessed that the person who taught you to speak Dongzhou must be from our local clan, and I should know him." ”

Gu Xuan didn't have the slightest idea of hiding this, on the contrary, this was originally a skill that he deliberately revealed, so he immediately admitted generously: "I can't hide it from you, Uncle Dong, when Ah Bao was in the Western Continent before, one of his best friends was a native of the Earth Clan, and he also taught me to speak the language of the Eastern Continent, and the accent was naturally learned from him." ”

Uncle Dong stretched out his hand, stepped on the stool, put the most traditional liquor of the Sitandi clan on the table, and then couldn't wait to use a sharp knife in his hand to cut a piece of bacon from a large piece of bacon on the table, and with a shake of his hand, the thin slices of meat were rolled up by the dexterity of his hand and wrapped in a ball on the tip of the knife.

He wrapped the meat roll with a spicy sauce that Gu Xuan personally prepared for him, and boldly put it in his mouth, chewing it seriously, and asked: "There are not many people from the Earth tribe who have settled in the Western Continent, and he is really tired of living in the Eastern Continent." ”

Although the cargo ship transporting slaves only stopped for one night in Daliang Capital at that time, and after unloading the goods and replenishing the goods, it immediately set off for the Eastern Continent, but in fact, there was an intersection between Uncle Dong and Lao Huo in the capital, and Lao Huo once mentioned a friend on the ship, who was Uncle Dong.

Gu Xuan was not surprised at all, in his opinion, the two must be connected, and it must be because Uncle Dong had already guessed it, so he was so good to himself, overriding public opinion, leaving his own life, and at this time, he made a special trip to invite himself to come over for a drink alone.

"Before the fleet left the Western Continent, the last place it docked at was called Liangguo, you must have guessed it, I am a native of Liangguo, and he also met in Liangguo, he has a restaurant in our Daliang capital, specializing in selling wine from the local clan. ”

Uncle Dong grinned and asked, "Do you like the wine of our earth clan too?" I always thought that the old boy was bragging. ”

Gu Xuan hurriedly waved his hand, without thinking about flattering the other party at all, but confessed: "The smell of wine is too strong, and the taste is a little weird, ordinary people can't drink it." ”

Then he immediately stretched out his hand, slapped the seal of the wine jar at once, poured a bowl of wine for himself and Uncle Dong, and said with a look of intoxication: "But I like the spirits of the earth clan the most." ”

Seeing this, Uncle Dong immediately slapped his thigh and smiled heartily: "Good boy, it seems that we have to have a good drink today." ”