At sunrise.

It's the second morning of winter. Golden warmth spreads from the east. The water surface of the Qingjiang River rises under the glow of the sun, and a misty fog rises. The flowers and plants on the shore are hung with fine ice crystals, which are dotted with sparkling light in the long green patches.

It was a good weather to "wait for winter", and every family should have sorted out the year's harvest, and asked a few old friends to walk around leisurely, bask in the sun, chat, and watch every word they say turn into a white vapor.

But Qingjiang City was not angry at all, and it was more terrifying than the night.

Every inch of the bare ground in the inner city was covered with stumps and corpses, as well as the clansmen, healers, and sergeants who had fallen to the ground, and everyone was silent, not daring to ask questions of the people around them, for fear that even if they were hoarse, they would not get a single response. Only use the corner of his eye timidly to probe the people next to him to see if there is still breath between his mouth and nose.

And the Li Mansion is the hardest hit place in the city. It is almost certain that the starting point of the earth crack is the Milk Tiger Forest where Ma Qing is drunk, and the end point is the crypt where the Li Mansion hides treasures, increasing all the way, and by the time they reach the Li Mansion, they already have the power of the mountain and the city. With the power of the shock, the Li Mansion was in ruins in an instant.

A middle-aged woman with a disheveled hair sat under a low stone staircase, covered with a black blanket, the collar and cuffs of her green dress peeking out of the black blanket. She also leaned on a boy who was sleeping soundly at the age of eleven or twelve. She looked at the child's messy short hair with a frown, and gently patted the boy's back with her hand, silent and almost sluggish.

This lady is the fifth lady of the Li Mansion. And that boy is her stepson, the second son of the third lady, Xiao Wei's own brother, Li Songyuan. After the third lady had a difficult birth, Xiao Wei passed on to Bai Bei'er, and the other two brothers handed over the object to the fifth lady. The fifth lady also had a pair of children, but she pity the two brothers who lost their mother at a young age, and they are the same for the two stepsons.

In the distance of these two people is another mother and son: it is Bai Bei'er and Xiao Wei.

Xiao Wei didn't sleep at all with heavy dark circles under his eyes, his dark eyes glanced at the fifth lady from time to time, although he was a little sluggish, but he was still very neat; the white bottle was much more embarrassed, although the dirt on his face had been dusted off with his hands, there were still some subtle traces, and a few strands of messy hair fell out of the bun from time to time, his clothes were worn out everywhere, and there were deep or shallow wounds on his hands, feet, and joints, revealing a little coagulated blood stains.

Last night.

When the ground cracked, Xiao Wei was in the old house in the west of the outer city, and he was protected by a master of Bai Yougui's level, so he was naturally unharmed. Speaking of which, since Mr. left, Bai Yougui has become more and more withdrawn from the world. He came to Qingjiang to leave here one day. After waiting for more than twenty years, Mr. finally appeared and left. Although Mr. said before parting: If there is fate, he will take care of Li Wei's mother and son. But where did it start, and how to say it clearly. Bai Yougui was not a director in the past, but now he is even more lazy, and he reads some old books in Fengchang Mansion in the name of official business.

In fact, in Qingjiang City, he had the most real premonition about this earth split, but he didn't communicate with Ma Kuo, Li Geshu and others, and he didn't even ask where his apprentice Ma Qing was. First, it is unnecessary, just this mysterious feeling makes the whole city spend a lot of energy on guard, which is not very convincing. The second is that he has been in obscurity for many years, hoping that he doesn't want to fall too deep in Qingcheng, and the matter of saving Ma Qing has already been exposed, so he is even more resistant to forcing his head and attracting too much attention.

His thinking is simple, detached, and even monotonous. Maybe he didn't care about the lives of others, or maybe he had vaguely realized that this time it was no longer something he could take care of.

After thinking about it, he went back to the old house in the afternoon to guard.

Qingjiang is in turmoil, and he can only take care of Xiaowei first, and then make plans.

But Xiao Wei didn't want to.

He is not alone, he still has a white bottle to worry about.

The boredom for no reason accumulated for a day, and when it broke out, it turned into a huge panic. Xiao Wei didn't care about it and went straight to the inner city. Watching the little guy snatch the door away, Bai Yougui sighed and chased after him. He caught up with Xiao Wei in a few ways, and ran quickly on the wall of the eaves courtyard with him.

When I arrived at the Li Mansion, there was chaos in front of me.

But the white bottle is in a very conspicuous position.

Li Wuxiong, who looked like a pine tree, protected her behind him, and a woman in green who looked like a mad man was rushing towards her. Due to the identities of several people, even if everyone was in a mess, they still faintly gave up a small circle.

Li Wuxiong grabbed the woman lightly and said, "The fifth lady is self-respecting. Li Wuxiong's family has a respected status in the Li family, even if this woman in green is Li Geshu's fifth wife, he doesn't have to shout "five grandmothers", but call the fifth lady like his peers.

The fifth lady couldn't break free, and she didn't dare to throw wild at Li Wuxiong, and it was difficult to ride a tiger for a while, so she could only stare at the gray white bottle with hatred.

When the catastrophe came, there were indeed few people who had the time to deal with this farce and persuade the fifth lady to give her a step down.

At this time, Bai Yougui and Xiao Wei fell in the middle of the courtyard. Before Xiao Wei could stand firmly, he shouted and threw himself into Bai Bei'er's arms. Bai Bei'er trembled, and his thumb trembled and scraped Xiao Wei's forehead, Xiao Wei is obedient, and his mother is here.

Li Wuxiong didn't expect Bai Fengchang to come here, but he still looked at everyone in the same posture as before, and only bowed his head slightly and said "Bai Fengchang" as a greeting. Seeing Bai Yougui and Xiao Wei coming together, he knew that the two of them were here to look for Bai Bottle, so he said: The bottle will be handed over to you to take care of. Not verbose, and then immediately went elsewhere.

When Li Geshu was punctual, Bai Yougui often went in and out of the Li Mansion, and the fifth lady naturally recognized it. She also knew that half a month ago, Brother Li Shu recruited Xiao Wei as an apprentice. Bai Yougui is here, and she can't ask for benefits.

She said hello to the white bottle three times in a row, and sat down in the courtyard as if she had lost her soul.

In fact, there is no grudge between her and Bai Bei'er on weekdays, and there is not even an intersection.

The strife begins just before dinner.

Yesterday was the Winter Clothes Festival, and the slightly older people in the Li Mansion all needed to go out of the city to worship. Not only is there a shortage of manpower in the kitchen, but it is also necessary to prepare several times the usual food as a tribute.

Li Geshu's original partner died early, and in the past, the second lady cooked in the backyard, and she took care of food and clothing. But because of this, when the sacrifice was made, the second lady had to go together. After several prevarications, the kitchen can only be the white bottle. The helpers from the Li Mansion never stopped from morning to night, but they still couldn't prepare dinner on time as usual.

When everyone returned in the evening, the second lady ordered more than a dozen older clansmen to help everywhere. Among them, several sons under the knee of the third lady were assigned to the kitchen, but unexpectedly this happened.

Li Wuxiong is not chaotic. Before the fire started, he went straight to the stove and snatched out the white bottle, and when he wanted to turn back and save people, the fire rose up like a demon and burned everything around him.

When the fifth lady dragged the young Li Songyuan to arrive, she wanted to cry without tears in the firelight. She really couldn't accept this change, and she couldn't even complain, but the roaring sorrow couldn't rest because it was a natural disaster. Subconsciously and arbitrarily recognized a reproachable person, and that was the white bottle. The so-called hatred starts from the heart, and evil is born in the guts, so she threw herself heart-rending at the woman who was also trembling.

So the scene when Li Wei and Bai Yougui first came happened.

Bai Yougui glanced at the fifth lady and knew that this was also a poor person, and he would definitely not embarrass her. He just stood silently and looked around. Seeing that the fifth lady was calm, he also left.

The two pairs of mother and son sat until dawn four or five feet apart, separated by four or five feet, without noise or movement.

After dawn, the fires were extinguished everywhere.

Ma Ko at the head of the city looked at the bottom of the city. There was still heat on the blackened wood, mixed with the water that had been poured before, and it turned into thick white steam. He had a headache when he looked at it, and he was so dazed that he couldn't remember what it was like before.

The subordinate sentinels rode out in the thousands, and all the west, east, and north were reinstated, but the rangers in the south could not return as long as they patrolled a hundred miles away.