Six

In my memory, Master always seemed to be quiet, even when he was galloping on a horse or teaching me martial arts. Obviously, the extremely fast movements are infinitely extended in the mind.

At night, I took out Master's sword, lit an oil lamp, and wiped the blade over and over again. After returning from that tomb sweep, I inexplicably had more of this habit. The cloth towel in his hand wiped the tip of the sword, and I heard a noise outside, and soon I could see the torches lit up everywhere outside the window.

I put my sword back in its sheath and walked out the door, finding a lot of people I didn't know. A junior brother hurriedly ran over and bumped into me, only to shout: "Senior brother, someone has tied up Master!" "Boom, I was stunned and ran straight to the lobby.

Many juniors and disciples were already standing there, and many black-clothed people surrounded the master in the center of the hall. Master sat in his usual chair, his lips purple, and he didn't have too much expression. It can be seen that the master is abnormally weak, which is a sign of poisoning.

Someone walked around in front of the hall and glanced at the people below: "Hand over Pei Yun to me, or no one will want to get out alive." "The face is too yellow, and there are no more teeth left. This face is old, but I will probably never forget it, Zhang Quanhu. I silently chewed on the name in my heart.

The second junior brother was the first to shout: "What kind of conspiracy and tricks are the people of the rivers and lakes, if the master hadn't fallen for your tricks, there would be no room for you to speak now!" We don't have a person named Pei Yun here, so let go of our master if you know each other! "I didn't dare to go among the junior brothers, I hid behind the tree, and I changed my mind several times as I spoke, and finally I wanted to see the situation before making a decision.

Zhang Quanhu put his ear to the hall: "What did you say?" Your Master? Do you know what his name is, recognize him as a master? Haha, Lao Tzu is in a good mood today, I might as well tell you, I can't really have a person at all, his name is Baili Night. I looked for him for ten years, but I didn't expect him to live incognito in this ghost place. It was because I couldn't beat him that I poisoned him. I'm much worse than him compared to his tricks. The tragedy of Wenren Villa back then was thanks to your sanctimonious master who responded internally. He took advantage of Miss Wenrensan's admiration for him to get the most detailed information. ”

Hundreds of miles of night. I've heard the name many times during my travels, and there's always a heated argument when people talk about him. Some people say that he is wolf-hearted and dog-hearted, and he is sorry for Miss Wenren; Some people say that he was such a rising star before the tragedy of destroying the village that he couldn't look at directly. Every time he encountered this kind of controversy, Master walked by those people indifferently as usual. The matter of Wenren Villa was too far away, and I saw the juniors and disciples who knew with shocked expressions, and those who didn't know looked at a loss.

The second junior brother's shocked expression quickly disappeared: "Those things in the past have nothing to do with us, I said, we don't know what Pei Yun's name is, you let go of the master." ”

Zhang Quanhu walked up to the master and pushed him, and the master fell from the chair. "You see, I didn't tie him up, he can go at any time if he wants to. Now he was lying on the ground and refusing to move. Regardless of the second junior brother shouting angrily, he shouted around, "Pei Yun, come out quickly." You don't want to drag another person down, do you? The knife was raised on Master, and I gritted my teeth and walked out.

"Big brother!" When the juniors and disciples saw me appear, they all shouted, "They have tied up Master, as long as you say a word, we will fight immediately." "Hit? It's not easy to talk about, there are only a dozen people in the junior and junior groups combined, and the number of people on the other side is more than twice that of us. When we meet again many years later, Zhang Quanhu is fully prepared, and it is impossible for these juniors to curry favor with him.

Zhang Quanhu recognized me at a glance and couldn't help laughing: "Good boy, I still have a little backbone, I thought you gave it to me when I was seven years old, but now I don't dare to come out." ”

My palms were sweaty, and I slipped with my sword, and I didn't dare to respond to the words of my junior disciples or Zhang Quanhu.

The second junior brother was anxious: "Senior brother, what are you waiting for, give the order quickly!" We have all been practicing martial arts since childhood, how can we retreat at this juncture! ”

Seeing that I had been silent, he rushed forward first. None of the juniors expected him to do it alone, and by the time he reacted, he had already been captured. Zhang Quanhu walked up to the second junior brother with a knife: "Pei Yun, let me ask you, are you willing to hand over the golden talisman?" ”

It's a golden talisman again! How much gold can make these people spend ten years chasing a child? I shook my head, "I didn't." The second junior brother shouted at me: "I read you right, you have always been a cowardly cripple!" "I wanted to come to the rescue, but I never had the guts. After a moment's hesitation, Zhang Quanhu had already cut off the head of the second junior brother.

Those angry eyes are like mothers.

The juniors and disciples clamored, and there was a lot of discussion about the fact that I was Pei Yun and the death of the second junior brother, and the morale just now disappeared. Zhang Quanhu returned to the master and said to me, "Pei Yun, no one will show up to save you today. Since you said that the golden talisman is not in your hands, you can't let our brother go on this trip in vain. Old rule, kneel down and kowtow to me a few times, my lord is in a good mood and may be able to let go of your master and you. ”

I knew that he would not let Master and me go, and I knew that even if I did what he said, he would still kill us and dig three feet into the ground to find the golden talisman. Obviously, I know it, but my knees are still sore. It seemed that the shadow of the age of seven never left me, like a dark cloud hanging over my head, pouring out at a critical moment to force me to submit.

I squirmed my lower lip and said in a gnat-like voice, "My left knee hurts and I can't bend it." ”

Zhang Quanhu sneered: "It's okay to kneel on one knee." ”

Get down on one knee, it sounds a lot better than before. If you can't fight hard, why not give it a try. Ten years ago, he would have killed my parents, not necessarily me and Master today.

"Qingming, don't kneel."

I looked up and saw Master's clear eyes. Neither the loose hair nor the dust on the ground tarnished his look, and his cold tone told me as a matter of course: "Don't kneel. ”

"Lao Tzu is the most annoying person who talks a lot of nonsense." Suddenly, Zhang Quanhu stabbed into the master's body. Blood gushed out, and the body I had thought was an immortal slowly fell. Master looked at me and closed his eyes.

No resentment, no blame, even a hint of comfort.

Yes, I can't kneel. It has been ten years since the last glance of my mother, ten years since I followed the footsteps of the master, and ten years since I wore the coat of "Qingming". Ten years is long enough, so long that I can understand what filial piety, loyalty, and responsibility are with the identity of "Qingming".

For the first time since that year when I cried and shouted "no, no, no", tears overflowed my eyes. I realized that it was so hot, almost burned to the point that the skin was burned. I slowly drew my sword and pointed at Zhang Quanhu: "I'm not Pei Yun, my name is Qingming." ”

Seven

Master said that life is tragic and full of hope. Master said that some people experience more and some people experience less, so some people get more and some people get less.

Master said very little, but I remember a lot.

He said, "Bury me beside Qianjue." ”

When I was sorting things out, I found that this sentence was engraved on the table in the lobby. I took Master's body alone and went back to the small mountainside in Jiangnan to be buried, leaving the third junior brother to manage the affairs of the family. After that war, there were a lot of things that needed to be dealt with.

While kneeling in front of the grave, I remember that when I was sorting out Master's belongings, I once found a large number of portraits of women in one of his sealed boxes.

The portraits are all of the same person.

She was arrogant and awe-inspiring, tilting her head and smiling. Such a peerless woman, even if you just look at it from the painting, you can feel that the blade-like eyebrows and eyes have a faint coldness, and there is a special charm that makes people unable to take their eyes off it.

Her every move is depicted in those paintings. It seems to record her whole life.

I think Master loves her.

Love to the core.

"You still have a little conscience."

I looked back and saw the "ghost hand", who was older than the last time we met, still in good spirits, and had spilled a pot of wine in front of Master's grave.

I didn't have any inscriptions on the tombstone, so I really didn't know what to engrave.

"Ghost Hand" said to me: "I heard about it, but fortunately you have learned all his martial arts. I didn't hide it from you, I was very optimistic about you at the beginning, and always advised him to teach you martial arts step by step, and then teach others when you learn a little. He doesn't say anything, he still insists on teaching you everything step by step. I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it. ”

I know, before that war, I didn't seem to know anything. I worked harder than anyone else, and I practiced smoothly, and I lost a lot of time in every competition. Even I never thought I would be able to reach the heights of Master. Maybe in the process of practicing, I have already laid a solid foundation, but I haven't broken through the knot.

The "ghost hand" poured the rest of the wine into his mouth, leaving a sip and handing it to me: "Su Ye and Miss Wenren are truly in love, and Master Wenren doesn't like people in the rivers and lakes." said that he refused to marry his favorite daughter to him. The two discussed elopement, he was young and vigorous at the time, and he was worried that the elopement would not be separated from his sweetheart forever. Privately make a deal with a gang of thieves, he provides a map, and the thieves go in to grab things, so that he can take advantage of the chaos to take Miss Wenren and run away. Unexpectedly, the real purpose of the gang of robbers was the gold stored in Wenren Villa, and their strength was far stronger than he imagined, so they went in advance and poisoned the well. ”

I drank the wine from the jug, and it was mellow and mellow. "And then?"

Then Miss Wenren did not leave. She was also poisoned by herself, and she couldn't protect her sweetheart, and watched her die in front of her. Barely escaped from Wenren Villa. Miss Wenren didn't complain about him, and when she was dying, she told him that there were two golden talismans, and they were only useful together. One is a token of love given to him, and the other is in the hands of his sworn sister Bai Shengluo, asking him to find a way to protect Bai Shengluo's family. ”

I remembered Master's appearance in the waterfall, the blue jade color that I couldn't see clearly since I was a child, and I understood why he could sit with bated breath when the cold water ran through his body, and what was hidden under his indifferent expression whenever someone mentioned Bai Chukong and Miss Wenrensan.

"When the night comes, you're the only one left in your house. Zhang Quanhu escaped to save his life, but he has always been thinking about the gold for many years. Of course, he is not the only one who is worried about the gold on the rivers and lakes, and it is ridiculous that he is the first to be taken everywhere. Now that he has been killed by you, you are a Jianghu person. ”

I returned the flask to the "ghost hand": "Thank you for telling me this, I have to go back." ”

The voice of the "ghost hand" came from behind: "Young man, you have to remember, there is gold under the man's knees. ”

He bit the word "below the knee" very hard, and I touched the place where my left knee had been injured, and suddenly understood what the so-called "iron plate" that had been implanted was.

When I left Jiangnan, the pomegranate flowers were burning red.