Chapter 70: Through the Looking Glass

On the banks of the Huxi River, where the stars set at night, the trajectory of muddy water flowing over the convex stones is clearer than in the daytime.

The river flows along the banks of an abandoned wooden house, and the murmur is faintly mixed with other movements.

“…… Now that the matter of the lord's 'drowning' is in an uproar in the city, I am afraid that if it continues like this, it will soon spread to Kyoto, and my subordinates will immediately go back and send people to block this rumor to the outside world. ”

Xing Yi stood outside the door with a thin sweat on his forehead, like a war horse that had just run eight hundred miles in an emergency, and even his breathing trembled slightly.

"No, since Bendu is a thorn in the hearts of others, then pulling out the thorn will mistakenly think that it is healing, and the subsequent actions will definitely be impatient." Nangong Qijue glanced at him, "Do you think this hot soup that is about to boil is suitable for dining?" ”

The fluttering tone didn't sound weighty, but it made Xing consciously clench the saber at his waist - it was his most instinctive reaction when he was in danger.

"The subordinates are stupid and dare not speak falsely, but more than half of the collapsed sluice gates outside the city have been repaired, and no traces of man-made damage have been found during the period, fortunately ...... Fortunately, the owner was safe and sound. ”

Xingyi secretly adjusted his internal breath, trying to make himself look ...... At least on the surface, he looked the same as usual, but he spoke a little faster than usual.

I don't know if the last few words are out of the truth or to cover up the weakness of my heart.

As he spoke, he stared at a puddle of water at his feet, and by the faint light of a lone lantern hanging on the wooden eaves, in the reflection of a calm mirror, his facial features were also seen every day, nothing unusual.

Only in the amber pupils, a vague trace of panic flashed......

After learning the news that "the Governor of Nangong was caught in the torrent in order to save His Royal Highness the Prince", he rushed to Juncheng overnight.

But the investigation has been fruitless for a long time, even if Xing Yi is unwilling to admit that someone like Nangong Qijue would die so easily, and even talking about this matter feels absurd.

But in the face of natural disasters, how many people can survive safely, his original firm belief was inevitably shaken when he saw the tragic situation of devastation after the flood - during that period, Xing Er came to him.

He once said that goodbye would be a sword fight, but Xing Yi failed to do it, but was almost persuaded by Xing Er to become his "partner" in seeking power and private affairs.

If you have an external thought, it is already a betrayal......

The feeling of tightness and faintly hot in the chest suddenly extinguished when Xingyi received a peculiar summons order, as if someone had spied on his ugly mind, and suddenly exposed to the blue sky and white sun, it seemed a little like sitting on pins and needles.

Disappointed? When Nangong Qijue appeared in front of him intact.

If he denies it, maybe Xingyi himself will look down on himself - he has always been bright about his opponent's moves.

If he hesitates, there is a moment when he thinks...... There is a bit of joy hidden in my heart.

"It's rare for the prince to be positive."

Hearing this, Xing Yi hurriedly put away the distracting thoughts in his heart, and looked up to see Nangong Qijue flipping through a thick pile of letters, and the cover was clearly covered with the big red seal of the East Palace in the middle.

Such a flamboyant style of acting, although it is not Xia Yujie's consistent style, it is not difficult to imagine the smugness that the parties can't hide can't hide.

But clear skies, rain, cloudy days, and thunder are the norm, not to mention that man-made things cannot go as they should be—the messenger he sent to the palace with joy was intercepted in the middle of the road......

The poor prince Long Feifeng wrote for more than half an hour, and after browsing a few lines in the hands of the Nangong Metropolitan Governor, he easily threw out the more than ten pages full of nonsense.

The punishment is not clear, so he raised his eyes and skimmed a few pages, almost all of which were Xia Yujie's various "great achievements" in the disaster relief in Juncheng, and even how to serve a bowl of porridge to a mother and son on the side of the road were described in great detail.

"If this letter is transmitted back to the palace, it will surely have another complication." Xing Yi stared at the center of the chaotic letter paper on the ground, and saw the small words "Nangong Qijue died unexpectedly" written prominently in the bevel corner of the slit.

With the queen's means, where does Xia Yujie need to report to her, it is not too much to draw the snake's feet.

Nangong Qijue raised his hand and waved, and more than a dozen pieces of white paper instantly fell to the river one after another, gradually soaking and festering along the current.

He looked away, suddenly changed his words, and asked, "What happened to the General's Mansion recently?" ”

When Xing Yi heard this, he was stunned for a few seconds before he reacted: "Back to the lord, I heard that the old general Sui Yuan has presented an excerpt to the top and wants to retreat, but the emperor has not yet issued an edict to reveal the truth of this matter." ”

"Du Yi is old, and if he wants his children and grandchildren to take the throne, it will be a matter of time before he delegates." Nangong Qijue closed his eyes, there was no surprise on his face, his index finger tapped one by one, and the dilapidated wooden platform made a "dong dong" sound, which invisibly added a trace of ghostly aura to the surroundings.

"What the lord said is that his grandson Du Yun performed well in the barracks, and almost no one of the soldiers of the same generation can match him, and he is now in the limelight."

As soon as the words fell, Xing felt that there was nothing else important, so he bowed his head to the side, but after a long time, he still did not see any instructions from his own overseer, and his body stood still, as if waiting for him to continue.

He really couldn't figure out what Nangong Qijue meant, so he had to search all the information about the General's Mansion in his mind, and then he tried to speak: "There is another thing that my subordinates think is quite strange, the daughter of General Xiaoyong, who has gone out to study medicine for some reason. ”

"Oh? What's weird? The sound of the wooden platform stopped.

Xing Yi thought about it, twisted his brows and guessed: "The day before Jimo Xiaohuang left home, the wives and daughters of Second Lieutenant Jimo and Young Master Lin both made a big fuss in the ancestral hall of the General's Mansion, and the reason was that the hibiscus flower party ......."

"Mrs. Lin's second son?" Nangong Qijue had a faint glance, and he never paid attention to insignificant people and things.

But his memory is too good, no matter what he has seen and heard once, no matter how bad it is, it will leave an impression in his mind.

"I don't even have time to discipline my wife and daughter, so I think it's because I'm busy, so let's let them all be free."

When Xing Yi heard this, he paused, "Yes, if the lord has no other orders, his subordinates will retire first." ”

Suddenly, the night breeze was cool in the silent place, only the high-hanging lanterns swayed lightly from side to side as if in response, shaking the black shadows under the eaves.

Mo Yan quietly walked out of the corner, looking at the direction where Xing Yi left, he said with difficulty: "Lord... Son, this person... Yes...... The words "There is a different ......" were extremely stuttered, and the effort seemed to be squeezed out of his broken voice, which sounded particularly abrasive to the ears.

"Hmm." Nangong Qi absolutely responded, and there was no emotion in his dark ink-stained eyes.

Seeing this, Mo Yan silently moved to the place where there was no light, and said in his heart that the master has always been like a mirror, but he was just too lazy to pay attention to those clowns who jumped off the beam, so why should he come and talk more.

…… With the old man taking care of her, she should be fine, right?

Nangong Qijue's eyebrows moved slightly, and when he came back to his senses, he noticed that someone had shrunk into the corner again, he slanted at the big hood that was hidden in the dark environment and almost became one with the darkness, and said in a deep voice: "What's the matter?" ”

Hearing his question, Mo Yan quickly took out a piece of ash wrapped like a matchstick from his sleeve and handed it over.

It is a special inch of paper for transmitting news in the listening hall, the material is thin and impermeable, extremely tough, and it is not wet and burned in a short period of time, but the handwriting on it can be erased with vinegar paste.

The ash note succinctly stated that Xia Yutian not only concealed it after discovering the whereabouts of the criminal governor and governor, but wanted to use the sudden hysteria in the city to mobilize major pharmacists in Kyoto to donate medicinal materials for disaster relief.

If this matter is successful, the first thing to bear the brunt of is the trading house that owns all the medicinal materials in the imperial city, and among the royal pharmacists, the name of the Sui Yuan General's Mansion is entrenched.

Just imagine, all the pharmacists in the city donated medicinal materials to support, how could the royal trading houses shirk it?

Emperor Xia Yu has long been afraid of the power of the queen's mother's family, so the opportunity to weaken his source of funds in accordance with the time of day is not right in his arms?

Xia Yutian dared to take advantage of the disaster of Juncheng to be this bird, and he must have taken this into account.

As the saying goes, it's good to enjoy the shade with his back against a big tree, if he does a good job, it is a disaster relief, and if he takes 10,000 steps back, he can have a good reputation even if he doesn't help much.

Perhaps, he calculated much more than that......

"It seems that the sons and brothers in the imperial city are not all straw bales." The letterhead was shattered into slag in Nangong Qijue's hands, and the confetti flew to the surface of the water and sank.

————————————

"It's ...... Where? ”

In the world of falling flowers like snow, pale and empty without a trace of life, in the pear grove full of flying flowers, Xiao Huang faintly climbed a sense of déjà vu in his heart.

But when she wanted to remember something, her mind was filled with a chaotic haze, as if a distant memory had been lost.

The petals of the tree kept falling in front of your eyes, all under your feet, and your feet on them, as if you were stuck in a soft cloud with every step.

That unsteady touch, so ethereal that it can make people fall into the clouds at any time, and what is surprising is that the pear blossoms in full bloom have no floral fragrance in the air.

Inexplicably in such a strange place, Xiao Huang was secretly vigilant in his heart all the time.

With some speculation, she broke off a bouquet of flowers and brought it close to the tip of her nose, but she couldn't smell the aromatic oil that flowers should be peculiar.

It stands to reason that the pear flowers are now long past the blooming season, but here...... Xiao Huang looked around at the pear trees that were neatly arranged, and even the tall and short branches were roughly the same.

Suddenly, she closed her eyes and began to stride forward, without looking back or turning, only in one direction, not looking at the flowers that were becoming obsessive, nor wondering if she would run into the trees that stood in her way.

But Xiao Huang didn't know that the moment she chose to "ignore it", the space in the pear orchard world seemed to have lost its substance, and the arrangement of the trees became void and transparent, allowing her to go straight through.

It wasn't until she suddenly smelled a strong fragrance of flowers that the pace under her feet stopped, but when her eyes widened, there were still endless white branches of flowers in front of her.

Only the scenery that was very different from before - in the stone pavilion two meters away, there were two extremely familiar and unfamiliar figures of Xiao Huang.

The reason why it is familiar is because the two often appear in her dreams, and they are strange......

Just a few feet away, it was as if there was an invisible and untouchable wall of fog forever, and no matter how much she stared, the faces of the two people in the pavilion were always blurred.

If everyone in the world has a firefly that stops in the palm of her hand but can't hold it, then the white-shirted distant shadow that has been shuttling back and forth in Xiao Huang's dream for more than ten years may be a rare obsession that she wants to grasp.

She tried to move forward, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get close to that square inch......

"I ...... No name. ”

It was like a sound coming from the starry sky, and Xiao Huang was quieted down for a moment, just because the voice was ...... I already know it from the bottom of my heart.

In the stone pavilion, the girl in a tattered prison uniform looked up at the man in white for an unknown amount of time, her eyes were silent and indifferent, and even the tone of her voice carried the calm of stagnant water.

Although the man had a gentle smile on his face, Xiao Huang didn't feel the slightest bit of his happiness, and that smile seemed to be an expression that he had been accustomed to for many years, and over time it became a film outside the skin.

He squatted in front of the girl and looked at her at eye level, then spread out his palm to reveal a two-inch jade flute, "This short flute is yours?" ”

The verdant and smooth pipes and the man's fair complexion complement each other, revealing an indescribable spirituality.

The girl was stunned - she didn't understand why there were people with such beautiful smiles in this world.

She didn't speak...... But he nodded sluggishly.

"Since it belongs to you, you have to protect it." The man in the white shirt handed over the jade flute, "The sound of the flute is tactful, the long song is melodious, if a person's life has a predetermined end, wouldn't it be a little unintentional to go straight along the way...... Huang'er, are you right? ”

Huang'er? Who is he talking to...... For the first time, something called "doubt" appeared in the girl's eyes.

"You don't like it?"

The girl shook her head slightly.

"Then I'll call you 'Huang'er' in the future, okay?" The tone is still too gentle to ignore.

"Why?" The girl seems to be born with no words, even if she is puzzled in her heart, she only turns into three dry words.

It is rare to see someone express his doubts as plain, and the man only hooked the corners of his lips, he got up and looked at the pear blossoms outside the pavilion, his eyes were deep and far-reaching.

"'Brilliant talents, phoenixes fly to the nine abysses' is the most auspicious eulogy in my life, and when the chicks can fly, they will be free...... It's the only thing I can give you. ”

In the void, the man's gaze was extremely skillfully connected with Xiao Huang, and people couldn't help but wonder who he was talking about.

"And what about you, what's your name?"

Xiao Huang opened his mouth, but there were two identical voices in his ears, but one was slightly cold, and the other was a little urgent...... Subconsciously, she didn't want to tell if it was the girl who was asking, or if it was herself.

The man turned his gaze away, and the smoke from the pear blossom forest wrapped the stone pavilion tightly in it as if it had life.

The gradually white back in his eyes couldn't help but make Xiao Huang panic, but his body retreated uncontrollably at this moment...... In the panic, an incomparably strong voice came out of her heart.

“…… Child... Xi. ”

As the words became clearer and clearer, in a place where no one noticed, there was a faint blue light under the brocade mattress, flickering and disappearing, flickering and dimming......

Finally, when the person suddenly woke up in his sleep, the blue light stopped flickering frequently.