Ten years later –

It's the first night of the year again.

At this time, ten years had passed since the invasion of Kyoto. On the streets, however, the depression of the past has long since disappeared. The bustling market is lit up early in the morning. Although the midyear festival is a ghost festival, the tradition of the people is to set off river lanterns on the riverside after nightfall, a few years down, to this day the street gradually becomes a night market, but it is also very lively, after the Yao army entered Beijing, some northern tribes also moved south, and there are more jugglers dressed in animal skins on the street. This year, the new emperor ascended the throne at the beginning, and the capital was even more prosperous.

"An arrow was shot down in the city, a letter fell into the dust, picked up the newspaper and Wang Yexiao-" The sound of gongs and drums suddenly rose, and an old man sang "The Legend of Yue Fei" sonorously, and the crowd was gradually attracted by the subdued singing, and the shadow puppet booth was gradually surrounded by water.

"Oh, I told you to come out earlier, but you didn't listen, and now you can't see it!" A woman in a goose yellow skirt said angrily to the man in black next to her, the woman is only fourteen or fifteen years old, her fair little face is red because of anger at the moment, but it is more and more bright, the woman's hair is hung with the most popular hairpins, the sapphire blue butterfly earrings in the ears are hung with a pearl-sized transparent blood jade, the goose yellow clothes are covered with a light gauze cloak embroidered with soaring cranes, she pouts, but with a coquettish charm that seems to be happy and angry. This woman's surname is Yue, and her single name is a Ning character.

When the man in black heard this, he was not angry, smiled obediently, and helped the woman's somewhat loose hairpin, "Ning'er wants to see it?" ”

"Of course I want to see it, every time I come out, I bring those maids and maids, you can easily come to Beijing, why don't you have a good time with me?" Yue Ning's eyes widened and she snorted lightly.

"Then it will be as you wish."

The man said, grabbed Yue Ning's waist and flew up the tree with force, Yue Ning was not afraid, but laughed out loud. The people who had just gathered around the two of them whispered when they saw this.

"Who is that woman, so bold?"

"You be quiet, I can see it very clearly just now, these two people are afraid that they are from the Qiancheng Villa, and the jade pendants on their waists are engraved with the word 'Yan'——"

"Humble Hills?"

"You don't even know about Humble Hills? Most of the clothing and jewelry on your body are from their semicolons. I heard my relatives of Qingdaomen say that last year, the owner of Yan Zhuang and the guards returned to Beijing, and met the bandits of Nanshan on the way, and the two of them actually took the bandit to the nest. The man lowered his voice and explained to the woman next to him.

"That's amazing, how many times has the imperial court sent troops to return in vain, but they were solved by the two of them?"

The man nodded yes.

At this time, Yuening was sitting on a tree, her feet shaking and watching the shadow puppet show, and the man next to her looked at her with some doting, took out a bag of pastries from his arms and handed it to her.

"Ah, it's Master Guo's peach cake from the villa, I haven't eaten it for a long time." Yue Ning opened the oil paper bag, looked at the well-preserved shortbread inside, picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, and squinted her eyes suddenly. The man didn't say anything, just looked at her and didn't speak. "Brother Yi, you eat it too." Yue Ning said, and put the remaining half of the cake into the man's mouth.

"Delicious, right?"

The man didn't like sweets, but the pastry in his mouth at the moment seemed to be sweet in his heart all of a sudden, making him nod involuntarily.

Yue Ning smiled, continued to watch the shadow puppet show intently, and stopped talking. The sound of gongs and drums is endless, the two villains are playing happily on the white curtain, coupled with the stall owner's vigorous singing, the surrounding men, women and children can't help but be attracted by this play, Yue Fei's villain dodged and killed the golden general with a knife, and everyone applauded and shouted, so lively.

"Ahh

The crowd around the man dispersed instantly, the women began to scream, and the man pulled his own woman and ran away desperately.

Officers and soldiers immediately arrived. The officers and soldiers quickly separated the crowd from the dead, and Chen Bozhan walked through the crowd and stood next to the corpse with a blank gaze.

The man in black pulled Yue Ning to stand in the crowd, looking at the young general coldly, Yue Ning beside him suddenly grabbed his hand, Yue Ning's small hand was tightly gripping the man in black at this time, and his face was pale. Seeing this, the man in black only thought that Yue Ning was scared when he saw the dead man, "Don't look at it, let's go back." I had to drag Yuening back home.

The two squeezed out of the crowd, and Chen Bozhan could still be heard from a distance and ordered urgently: "Tell someone to return to the saint, and Xiang Zuo, the servant of the ministry, has been assassinated." ”

The wind suddenly rose, and the paper lamp hanging high was blown to pieces, just like this night, the original hustle and bustle and festivity were finally broken by this bizarre death.

In the main hall of the imperial palace, the hall was silent, which was completely different from the lively scene in Kyoto, Huizong sat on the dragon chair, watching the folds, Jiang Lin stood at the bottom, and several other civil officials gathered together to discuss something.

"The wolf son of the Yue Kingdom has been ambitious for a long time, since the first emperor invaded Kyoto, after the death of the Yue Ming Emperor, the king of Yue has never thought of separating the river with me. Sooner or later, this battle will have to be fought. Huizong threw the fold on the table and rubbed his forehead. The eunuch who was in charge of serving on the side immediately brought the ginseng soup and put it in front of Huizong.

"The emperor has just ascended the throne for less than 100 days, and he still needs to recuperate, how can he recruit troops to go south?" When a civil official heard this, he immediately stood up.

"Hmph, the emperor has just ascended the throne, and he must give this group of southern barbarians some powerful looks!" Jiang Lin was already black-faced, and this time he had just rushed back from the border pass, and he had a bit of a murderous aura, and he snorted coldly, which made the originally talkative civil official shut up for a while.

"This external worry and internal trouble......" Zheng Zhong, who had not spoken, suddenly opened his mouth at this time, but was interrupted by the communication outside.

"Holy Lord, the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Chen Bozhan, asks to see you."

Huizong motioned to the eunuch to summon Chen Bozhan.

"What?"

"Back to Your Majesty, Xiang Zuo, the head of the household department, was killed in the downtown area."

"Xiang Shilang has been raising military salaries for border guards recently, and now that there is foreign turmoil, this kind of thing has happened......"

The originally noisy hall returned to silence, Xiang Zuo's death was like water dripping from a pot of oil that had been boiling for a long time, and the originally quiet court situation did not know what it would become because of his death this time.

In the courtyard of the capital of Qiancheng Villa, Yue Ning and the man in black had just entered the door at this time, and the mother-in-law, who was fifteen or sixty years old, walked over, "Ouch, my little ancestor, they all said that this lamp will kill people, why did you come back?" If something happens, how can I explain it to the owner? ”

"There is a dark one, what are you afraid of?" Yue Ning snorted dissatisfiedly, and pulled the man in black to walk inside without looking back.

The mother-in-law looked at the back of Yue Ning leaving, pursed her lips disdainfully, raised her voice and said, "It's not the outer room of the owner who is raised in another courtyard!" ”

The person who studied martial arts was already deaf and clear-sighted, and the mother-in-law deliberately raised her voice, Yue Ning stiffened when she heard it.

The man dodged and pinched his mother-in-law's neck, "Ning'er is the daughter of the old housekeeper Uncle Yue, Uncle Yue is kind to the owner, and the owner of the village has long promised Uncle Yue to take good care of Ning'er, how can you ruin the innocence of her daughter's family like this?" ”

The mother-in-law was so frightened that she couldn't speak, and her face was bruised due to suffocation.

"Brother Yi, forget it......" Yue Ning took the man's hand and shook her head with a pleading look in her eyes. Seeing this, the man's heart couldn't help but soften.

"Ning'er is a Zhuang sister, and she grew up with me and the owner of the village since childhood, if I hear any gossip again, be careful of your dog head!" The man threw the mother-in-law to the ground, and the mother-in-law shrank back, nodded resignedly, and ran out of the yard with a roll.

Yuening pulled the dark one into the main house. There was no one in the house.

"That's how they treated you in the past?"

Yue Ning smiled, "The owner of the village can keep me in the Kyoto Annex, and order the best gentleman to teach Ning'er the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and Ning'er will cherish the blessings." ”

Dark One wanted to ask something, but Yue Ning smiled playfully: "Brother Yi, I'm a little hungry." ”

With that, Yue Ning walked to the stove with ease, stirred up the fire that had been somewhat extinguished, and took out two sweet potatoes and a handful of chestnuts from the small basket in the house, and threw them into the stove together. The man stared blankly at the crackling sound of Yue Ning roasting the chestnuts, and the warmth in the room was as if she had been silently accompanying her all these years. The fire is vigorous, and the smoke is swirling, as if it is a world away. Over the years, I have experienced a lot, the only thing that remains the same is the people around me, the chestnuts crackled, the room was gradually filled with the smell of food, Yue Ning's white little face squatting by the fire was red by the charcoal fire, those clear eyes, simple and greedy appearance, and the girl who carved into his heart back then-

Yan Ziqian, the owner of Qiancheng Villa, is the grandson of Wang Wenchong, whose real name is Wang Ziqian. When Wang Wenchong was framed and killed by Chen Bozhan, the housekeeper often ran back to Wang's house like a desperate escape, but he could only rescue him. At that time, Wang Wenchong had fought for the emperor for many years, and he had already known that the emperor would one day be suspicious of the emperor, but he never thought that this day would come so quickly, nor did he think that it was his henchman Chen Bozhan who plunged his whole family into a catastrophe. Fortunately, he had already made a way out and secretly opened the Qiancheng Villa.

When Yuechang saw Wang Wenchong being killed by Chen Bozhan, he wanted to make the truth public, but at that time, the whole army knew that Wang Wenchong collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country, and he was powerless to return to the sky. He and Wang Wenchong have long been not an ordinary master-servant friendship, he was 5 years old with Wang Wenchong to learn martial arts, and later followed Wang Wenchong to the south and north to fight, after several life and death, Yue Chang even blocked a few fatal swords for Wang Wenchong, the two supported each other, the relationship is more than brothers, and Yue Chang's wife is also a woman from a scholarly family who came forward by Wang Wenchong, so when he hid outside the big tent to witness what happened, after several twists and turns to avoid many pursuits, and finally returned to the Wang family, but he has long been unable to return to the sky.

When Yuechang's family was also chased by killers on the way to escape, he saw his daughter, who had just turned three, die at the hands of others, so he could only hate Chen Bozhan even more. When he fled to the foot of Qiancheng Villa with his wife and Yan Ziqian, he met Yue Ning, who was dying. The little girl only knew that she was shouting: "Daddy Ning'er is afraid of ......" This sentence aroused Yue Chang's guilt more and more, and the resolute man who did not shed tears even when he saw his daughter being killed by a knife along the way actually cried out loud at this moment, holding the girl's small body, and trembling in his voice: "Daddy is ...... Daddy is in ......"

The girl was raised in Qiancheng Villa for more than a month, and finally pulled back from the ghost gate, but when asked where her hometown was, who her parents were, she couldn't answer, she only knew that her name was Ning'er, at that time, there were many years of war, there were countless abandoned babies, and Yuening was still young. Yuechang's youngest daughter's breast name is also called Ning'er, so the husband and wife cherish the girl very much, and even named the girl Yuening to commemorate their dead daughter.

Dark One was brought back to the villa a month later.

He was Yan Ziqian's secret guard, and someone had already told him that his family was the son of the Wang family, and the Wang family was in trouble, and his parents were not spared. He was trained as a secret guard, he had never seen his parents, he had a cold temperament, he had received the most rigorous training of secret guards, when he returned from martial arts, he thought he could see his biological parents, but what was waiting for him was the news that both parents were killed and the Wang family was wiped out. learned the inside story, although he was just a few years old, he still couldn't restrain himself from hating Chen Bozhan.

He didn't talk much, so he was even more depressed, and when he wasn't on duty, he locked himself in the study all day long, just sitting at the table and reading the book in a daze. One day, Yue Ning went to the study to sprinkle and sweep as usual, but saw that the dark one was also in the study, but this time, she didn't go out, took out a small bag of chestnuts and two sweet potatoes from her arms, and threw them into the stove to roast them as if no one was around, the aroma gradually spread, and the dark turned her head to look at her. Yue Ning ignored it, crackling with the carbon, the shell of the chestnut gradually burst, and the dark one finally spoke, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "Get out." ”

Yue Ning didn't move, just continued to roast the food in the oven, and then used an iron hook to dial a few chestnuts into the plate, sighed, peeled off the chestnut shells, threw them into her mouth, squinted her eyes and smiled with satisfaction. On that day, the sun after the snow was extraordinarily full, shining through the window, shining on Yue Ning's little face full of happiness, and suddenly made Dark Yi feel that those chestnuts were really extremely sweet.

"Do you want to eat it?" Yue Ning looked at Dark One with a smile, Dark One shook his head in a daze, Yue Ning pursed his lips, peeled another chestnut and threw it into his mouth.

"What's your name? My father said that you are the secret guard of the young owner. Yue Ning asked vaguely with chestnuts in her mouth, but when she saw that Dark One was still stunned, she pouted a little dissatisfied, "I don't even say my name, it's really stingy." ”

Dark One lowered his head a little lonely, and smiled self-deprecatingly: "I don't have a name, I only know that my surname is Wang, but now, I'm afraid I can't even use this surname." ”

"No name?" Yue Ning screamed in surprise, put the small plate containing chestnuts on the table, rubbed the ash on his clothes indiscriminately, and sat down next to the dark one. "How can there be no name? Oh, I see, you Dark Guards only have code names, so, what were you called before? ”

"Me? Once upon a time? Heh......" After that, a look of resentment appeared on his face again, and the whole person looked gloomy, and his already heroic face looked like frost at the moment.

Seeing him like this, Yuening didn't know which sentence was wrong, so he had to cowardly open his mouth and say: "If you don't say it, don't say it......" Then he jumped up and picked up the chestnuts in the small plate, and said sullenly: "Daddy said, when I picked me up, I didn't know my real name, I only knew that my name was Ning'er, so my father called me Yuening." With that, his eyes lit up, and he walked up to the dark one and said, "Why don't I give you a name too?" ”

Seeing that she was full of interest, he couldn't bear to ruin her interest. Yue Ning picked up the pen, bit the end of the pen contemplatively, and wrote a big word on the paper.

"But the next day of 'three assistants and nine years, for the world's billions of years'?"

"It's the meaning of tomorrow, life is in the world, there is hope for tomorrow."

Yue Ning laughed happily again, "I know that you must be the son of the old owner, if you can't be surnamed Wang...... Well...... My name is Yuening, how about you call Yueyi? Brother ...... Hehe. Yue Ning laughed, and when she saw this, she also laughed, and the room that day was also filled with the aroma of sweet potatoes and roasted chestnuts, and the sunlight after the snow filled the whole room, and it also brightened the heart of Dark One. That sentence "Brother Yi" made him completely fall. Thinking about it, what if you can't find your former name? What about being called Yueyi from now on? The most beautiful thing in this world is to take my surname and the name of Guan Ru, but this is the most difficult thing for him, maybe he can't be called his wife Mrs. Wang in this life, but what? Yue Ning did it for him, as if from that moment, in addition to revenge, he also had hope, even if he was willing to do everything in order to keep the last tenderness around him.

From that day on, he was Yue Ning's next brother alone, and he was still the cold and emotionless dark one in front of people, and Yue Ning was also his only softness.

"What do you think?" Yue Ning tossed the roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes into a small bowl and put them on the dark hand. Dark smiled gently, peeled off the chestnut shell, and put the chestnut meat into Yuening's palm.

"It's time for me to go back to the lodge." Yue Ning's hand shook when she heard this. "It's the servant of the ministry who just died, I ......" Dark One wanted to continue to say something, but his words were interrupted by Yuening.

"I don't understand your ......" Yue Ning stuffed the chestnuts into her mouth, her face was no longer disappointed, and she still looked at Dark One with a smile, "As long as you come to accompany Ning Er earlier." ”

Darkly, the two sat opposite each other, silently peeling chestnuts and sweet potatoes, relatively silent.

The originally lively Zhongyuan Lantern Festival ended hastily due to the death of the servant of the ministry.

Chen Bozhan came to the huge Xiang Mansion, and the Xiang Mansion had already changed its dress at this time. The originally festive red lanterns and red candles were removed and replaced with white. Xiang Zuo's wife had returned home at this time, sitting in the main room and looking at the door in a daze. Mrs. Xiang is not yet thirty, but her beautiful face is pale at the moment. Almost everyone in the capital knows that Xiang Zuo has only one wife, who does not accept concubines and never lingers in the land of fireworks. When Chen Bozhan led the troops into Xiang's mansion, Mrs. Xiang was already a little crazy.

"Mrs. Xiang." Chen Bozhan called softly, but Mrs. Xiang was still sitting motionless, "Mrs. Xiang? Chen Bozhan approached and called again, Mrs. Xiang seemed to wake up, tears fell in an instant, she wanted to speak, but she seemed to be dumb and couldn't speak.

When the Praetorian Guards who came with Chen Bozhan saw this, they couldn't help but be a little moved. "Mrs. Xiang mourns. The emperor ordered me to take back the official documents that Lord Xiang had handled before. ”

Mrs. Xiang nodded when she heard this, and slowly stood up from the chair, she was already plain, and at this time, she helped the maid to get up like a weak willow and added a little grace, she gathered her somewhat scattered bun, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, leaned over Chen Bozhan, and said in a hoarse voice: "The official documents of the late husband are in the study, please come with me." ”

Chen Bozhan walked into the study with Mrs. Xiang, and Xiang Zuo's desk was still scattered with some unprocessed letters and official documents. "It happened suddenly, tonight the master was going to accompany me to deal with the official document after reading the lanterns, but ...... How do you know......" Mrs. Xiang didn't finish speaking, and cried in a low voice.

"Madame, can you tell the magistrate about the scene again?"

"At that time, we had just had dinner in Jinxiang Pavilion, and when we went out of the gate, we heard the shadow puppet show starting...... At that time, there were many people around the shadow puppet show, and he protected me, and I ...... I can't see who did it......"

"Madame, do you know who Lord Xiang has offended?" Chen Bozhan asked casually while picking up the documents on the table.

"My lord has always been a little wooden, and he only interacts with some colleagues on weekdays, and rarely goes out. If you want to say who you have offended...... Mrs. Xiang paused, and her gaze gradually became far-reaching, "Recently, in order to raise military salaries, the master has often had some dealings with some businessmen......

Chen Bozhan nodded when he heard this, "Madame's mourning, the lower officials will definitely try their best to thoroughly investigate the cause of the adult's death, and give the adult justice." ”

Mrs. Xiang immediately knelt on the ground when she heard this, and tears fell: "Please be sure to give my lord justice, I have been married to my lord for three years, and my lord has always spoiled me and loved me, if not, if I am not pregnant with my lord's flesh and blood, I will also go with him...... Please make sure that you are the master of the people's wife and arrest the murderer as soon as possible! After saying that, Mrs. Xiang actually kowtowed to Chen Bozhan a few times, and Chen Bozhan saw this and hurriedly helped him.

"The deep affection between the lady and the adult couple moved the official, and I also ask the lady to take care of her health." Chen Bozhan stopped talking, and ordered his guards to sort out the letters and official documents in the study and take them away, and left Xiangfu.

Mrs. Xiang stood in the patio, watched everyone leave, stroked her lower abdomen, looked up at the full moon, and sighed in a low voice: "Ah Zuo......"