The courtyard of Zhang's mansion has always been quiet, the ground is full of spring grass, falling elm money and wind-blown catkins. On the branches of the Tsubaki and Catalpa trees, sparrows are singing. A turtle dove flew and circled and cried a few times, and another turtle dove hidden in the branches came out and flew east with a single call.

Under a white elm tree, a little girl with a double bun was squatting and picking up the elm money that had fallen on the ground with her tender white hands and placing it on the handkerchief spread out on the side. She was wearing an elegant pink-colored shirt, with a piece of mutton fat white jade pinned to her waist, and her pink-colored skirt was spread out on the ground.

"Cool ......" A woman in a crescent white brocade coat and a light blue Luo skirt walked briskly from the vestibule. The girl didn't pay attention to it, and blindly collected the green elm money.

"Liangxi," the voice came closer, eagerly, and reluctantly lowered her tone, and the girl put away her veil and stood up.

Before the ......little girl had time to stand firmly, she was picked up by the woman and hurriedly went out of the house from the side door where the maid and the maid used to do daily use on weekdays were hurriedly removed.

The streets are full of vendors doing all kinds of business, and their ears are filled with the cries of all kinds of voices. There are those who sell maltose, there are those who sell silk, and there are those who sell lanterns...... Very lively as usual.

"Where are we going, mother?" Liang Xi lay on the woman's shoulders and twisted the silk handkerchief with her fingers. At this moment, a column of officers and soldiers with spears stepped across the street.

"Liangxi, don't speak." The woman covered the little girl's mouth, and the nervousness in her eyes was indescribable. Looking around, I saw the vegetable vendor next to me. The peddler was a young man, dressed in coarse cloth, but between his eyebrows he was very heroic, not like a greedy and shameless man. The woman put the little girl in the hawker's basket, and Liang Xi sat down in the frame, watching in puzzlement as the woman took out a piece of silver from her waist and stuffed it into the hawker's hand.

"Please help me hide this child, if I am safe, I will come and pick her up." Liangxi listened to the woman's words and wanted to get up from the basket, but the young man pressed her.

"Madame, don't worry, you and I are both Han Chinese, and we will definitely help each other." Although the voice is not loud, it is categorical and loud. The woman bowed her head in thanks, and hurried away, walking in the wind.

The young man placed the celery spread out on the ground on the top of Liang Xi's head and body, and whispered, "Don't move, don't make a sound!" Liang Xi curled up on the potatoes in the frame, her buttocks hurt, and her uneasy heart pounded. When the footsteps of the officers and soldiers were far away, the young man picked up the basket, but his feet were unsteady for a while, only to see him pause, and strode forward with the frame and alley as if relaxed, and walked in the direction of Yunmeng Mountain outside the city.

At the foot of Yunmeng Mountain, two thatched huts stand there. It was the young man's refuge with his mother. When the young man returned to the thatched hut panting like a cow, the moonlight was already hazy, and the willow trees around the house shrouded the house in the shadow of the moonlight. Inside the thatched hut, there is a faint amount of candlelight.

"Come in, little girl." The man stood in front of the house, with his back to the moonlight, unable to see his facial features, but faintly able to see his sparkling eyes.

The little girl was stunned for a moment, raised her legs and followed the man into the grass hut, and found a very haggard and tired woman sitting under the oil lamp in the house, embroidering something.

"Mother," the man stepped forward, snatched the handkerchief from the woman's hand, and said angrily, "You are so weak, why don't you listen to your son and rest well, and what are you doing embroidering these raushs?" But the woman did not answer, looked at Liangxi, beckoned to her with a loving smile, and said, "Come, let Auntie see." ”

Liang Xi hesitated forward, put her hand on the woman's hand, and smiled politely.

"Ah Sheng, who is this little girl?" The woman asked as she stroked Liangxi's soft little face.

"She was entrusted to me by a lady to take care of me when I was selling vegetables in the city, probably the daughter of Zhang Jinyan's family." The man picked up a small tea bowl from the table and took a sip.

"How do you know my daddy's name?" Listening to the young man, she asked suspiciously, her long eyelashes leaving a silhouette on the side of her face.

"You and your mother are both Han Chinese, and you have a jade plaque engraved with a word on your waist, I probably guessed it."

Zhang Jinyan was originally the secretary of the Ming Army, but later saw that the general trend of the Ming Dynasty had gone, and he couldn't bear to see the people being implicated in the Qing Dynasty, so he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and served as the right political envoy of Shandong. Later, he was summoned into the capital by the Empress Dowager of Xiaozhuang on the grounds of reporting the local soldiers and people.

The man squatted down, held Liangxi's shoulders and said, "If you want to survive in the future, you will never be able to let your jade plate appear in front of people, do you remember?" ”

Liang Xi listened to these inexplicable words, and was a little scared, "I don't know what you mean, big brother, didn't my mother say that she would come to pick me up?" ”

Looking at Liang Xi's flashing eyes, although he couldn't bear it, he still said: "Your mother may not be able to pick you up, these things are ......"

"You lied to me! You're the bad guy! When Liangxi heard this, she immediately burst into tears, tears streaming down her face.

"Listen to me, your father was an important minister of the former Ming Dynasty, how could the Qing Dynasty accommodate him? Your father must have been picked on by someone, and it is inevitable that he will be eliminated sooner or later. The man raised his hand and wiped the tears from Liang Xi's cheeks with his fingers.

"I don't understand, my dad is very nice. My father once said that if the people are safe, the country will be safe. My father loves the people like a son, although the world has changed hands, my father has always been conscientious, why get rid of my father? Liang Xi felt very aggrieved for his father when he heard this, and his tears were more like beads with broken threads, and they fell straight down. She pouted, arguing with reason.

"Liangxi, you'll understand when you grow up." The man ignored the crying and went outside to prepare for the fire. The woman looked helplessly at the man who was busy outside, held Liangxi in her arms, and gently patted Liangxi on her back with a withered hand, "Is your name Liangxi?" The woman asked softly.

Liang Xi choked and nodded, "Auntie, it's me who is not good, doesn't my father and mother want me?" ”

"How so? You see, how beautiful you are, how can they be willing not to want you? The woman wiped the tears on her face with a handkerchief, and said gently: "They must have something very important to do, and they will definitely come back when they are done." If they come back and see your ugly appearance, won't they be disappointed? ”

Liangxi listened carefully, looking at the fine lines at the corners of the woman's eyes and her kind eyes, just like the mother's eyes looking at her, her heart slowly settled, she wiped her face with the back of her hand, and said seriously: "Auntie, I don't cry anymore, Liangxi is the most well-behaved child." The woman covered her mouth and laughed.

Outside, as soon as the man lit the fire, he saw many torches lit in the forest not far away. In a moment's panic, he accidentally knocked over the stove.

He walked under the wall, picked up a few bamboo frames, and put them together and returned to the house. He took Liangxi from his mother's arms, looked at her and said, "Liangxi, wait a minute, I'll put you in the river, don't make a sound, don't move, this frame won't sink, if you see someone tomorrow, call for help." As he spoke, he picked her up and put her in the frame, then picked up the frame and walked towards the river in front of the house. Ignoring the woman's cries, she said, "I'll explain it to you later." ”

"Big brother, please don't put me in the river, I'm afraid." Liangxi's eyes widened in horror and pleaded quietly.

"Liangxi, if you stay, there is only a dead end, I can't live up to your mother's trust." The man waded into the water, until the river was up to his waist, he put the Liang Xi raised above his head and the person on the surface of the water, and pushed forward hard, "Liang Xi, you have to live well!" ”

On the dark face in the night, a pair of eyes shone brightly, and the thin lips had a hint of determination. This was the first time Liang Xi had looked at this man so carefully, as if she wanted to imprint his tough face deeply in her mind.

Looking at the man's figure getting farther and farther away, darkness and fear quickly surrounded Liang Xi. The cool evening drifted farther and farther away with the water, and the hands and feet gradually became cold. Even though the man's figure was no longer visible, she was still staring only at the place where the hut was. Even the sparkling surface of the river with the moonlight reflected in front of you could not see anything else.

After a while, Liang Xi saw that there were suddenly many small bright spots on the thatched hut, like stars twinkling in the sky, looking like torches. But soon those small bright spots gathered together, and you could faintly see that the hut seemed to be set on fire, and soon the fireball became very large, burning straight towards the sky, and instantly illuminated the sky, and the moon seemed to turn red.

Liangxi's hands and feet were instantly extremely cold, and a water bird skipped over the water in front of her. She bit her lip tightly, tears streaming down her face.