Thousands of miles away from Xuanyang City, in Yinwu County, there is a very long river, which goes straight into the East China Sea.

There is a small boat with white sails on the river, drifting alone on the river.

At the bow of the boat sat a young man dressed as a fisherman, his skin was slightly darker than that of the common people of the Great Xia Dynasty, young and old, who practiced white as beauty, but this black was very healthy. He was dressed in linen, with two sleeves rolled up to reveal his strong arms, and even his trouser legs were rolled up above his knees, and his feet were stained with mud.

His eyebrows, his eyes, were as clean as his hands.

This is a pair of hands as white as jade, white and pure does not look like a pair of men's hands, where could it be from a farming family who makes a living from fishing?

At this time, the sun is shining, and the bright sun is pressing overhead, making people dizzy.

The young man sat in the bow of the boat, his posture was very casual, his legs were lying there randomly, and his eyes were looking at the river in front of him, and the river was reflected in his eyes, which was also flowing.

It looked as if he was waiting for someone.

In the stern of the boat there was a delicate little stove with a small curved spout on it, and a bright and warm flame was burning in the furnace, and the pot was steaming white.

In a short time, the water in the pot was already boiling.

A young woman emerged from the cabin and took the pot off the stove, ignoring the temperature of the freshly boiled water.

I don't know how those soft and boneless jade hands can stand it?

This woman was born beautiful and moving, if it is too much to say that the national color and natural fragrance are broken, but it is definitely a middle-class posture. She wore a slightly wide but comfortable emerald green gown with a sword, her jet-black hair was loosely pulled up, and only a silver hairpin that could be bought for a tael of silver was inserted in her hair, and there was not even a pair of shoes on her feet, and a pair of jade feet were naked.

At this moment, she is pouring water into the cup very intently, as the saying goes, serious women are more beautiful, this is true.

There was nothing in the cup, just white water, for she knew that the man at the bow of the boat didn't like tea or anything else, only white water.

The plank of the boat was slightly hot from the sun, and she walked over lightly with her feet shoeed, holding a glass of water in one hand, and taking out some food from the cabin with the other, and putting it on the small coffee table in front of the young man in Mai.

The young man smelled the faint fragrance that was close at hand, raised his hand to cover the dazzling light, smiled, and said, "Zhuzi, how long have we been away from Tucheng?"

The young woman, who was called bamboo, put down what she was holding, raised her hand to collect her hair, and replied without thinking, "Ten days." ”

The young man was a little stunned and muttered, "Ten days, that's fast! Why do I feel like it's less than ten hours?"

The woman's surname is Nangong, and her name is Xiaozhu, but since a long, long time ago, she gave up the surname Nangong and only called herself a green bamboo.

She is now a maid named Green Bamboo.

Feeling a trace of melancholy in his tone, even her own mood became a little low, but Lu Zhu obviously knew this person's temperament, so she didn't take it too seriously, and just said softly: "Don't frown, your frowning look is ugly." ”

The lines on the young man's face are actually a little rough, very thin, as if carved out of a knife and an axe, and those who are weak and weak in the wind are different from those who are reading in the wind but can't help it, his face like this means that such a person acts decisively and even coldly, and will have an iron heart.

And that's exactly what happened.

But when the iron stone is blown by the spring breeze every day, there will be moments when it becomes gentle. Listening to Luzhu's glance, he smiled, even like a big child.

"Yes, yes, where am I like you, the frowning look can hook the souls of many people, not to mention men, even women will not think about tea and food when they look at it, come, sit with me for a while." ”

After receiving his big praise, Luzhu didn't seem very happy, and said as usual: "Don't sit, I don't want to be as dark as you." ”

The young man smiled dumbly and said, "Isn't black bad? Black means health, you don't understand! Today, the sun is so good, it can teach people to forget all their troubles." ”

As the two of them talked, the boat moved much slower, just drifting down the river, and the hurried green trees on both sides of the river slowly retreated.

The young man smiled and picked up the glass, which snapped as soon as it touched his lips.

He looked up in surprise, only to see that less than three inches in front of his forehead, a small arrow was caught in his hand by the green bamboo.

The small arrow was obviously made of metal, and its whole body was dark and shiny, and it was still shaking and humming in the hand of the person, and it took a long time to calm down.

He glanced at it, continued to drink the glass of water, and then said with a wry smile: "Those people in the city are still so unkind, how can they welcome guests so much, speaking of which, you are not afraid that this arrow is poisonous?"

The beautiful maid dressed in emerald green slowly glanced at the bushes on the other side of the riverbank, and chuckled: "You don't know, my hands, most of the poison is not afraid, not to mention, I didn't really hold it." ”

She loosened her jade-like fingers, and the young man saw clearly that there was a shallow distance between her five fingers and the body of the arrow, and it was just a false grip.

The next moment, the inner eye waves in the beautiful eyes flowed, and the small arrow turned into a streamer and broke through the air.

The streamer did not enter the bushes on the riverbank, and with a bang, a person fell from the tree and fell directly into the river.

Ignoring the fleeting figure on the vast river, Lu Zhu sat down beside the young man, bit his lip and said, "You just said something wrong. ”

The young man raised an eyebrow and asked, "Which one?"

"How can you say that you are so welcoming to guests, Xuanyang City is originally your home, how can you treat yourself as a guest? ”

Catching up with the firm and unshakable gaze of his little maid, the young man felt helpless, spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "Actually, there are many people who don't want me to go back, if it weren't for that, I should have been in that city, not that I have been wandering around for so many years, alas, in fact, Middle-earth is so big, it's not bad to go on like this, there are still many places in the south that I haven't been to, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have another chance in the future, this world is so big, I still want to ......"

"The teachers said back then, standing at the bottom of the well, you will never know how big the world is, if you want to see farther, you naturally have to stand in the highest place in the world, have you forgotten?"

Luzhu looked at the place where the river meets the sky, and said leisurely: "The highest place is naturally in that city, and that is the place that should belong to you." ”

......

Northwest border, Daliang Mountain under the snow ridge pass.

It is already the early spring season of March in the Central Plains, and the weather has already warmed, and Xuelingguan is still full of snow, and it snows again every sunny day after less than two days. One game after another, with no end in sight.

A middle-aged general in black heavy armor stood on the city wall, watched the goose feathers and snow dance in the air, and said hoarsely to a captain behind him: "How many days has the general been gone?"

The captain clenched his fists and replied respectfully: "It has been exactly one month since the general left the customs. ”

A month......

It's enough to rush from Xueling Pass to Xuanyang City.

When he thought of that person, a very complicated emotion appeared in the eyes of the middle-aged man, like worry, and like a little dazed.

The snow on Daliang Mountain does not melt all year round, but this year's snow day seems to be much colder than in previous years, which is a bit unusual.

The scar on his back seemed to be aching again.

......

Five hundred miles north of Xuanyang City, there was a group of light horsemen galloping towards the south on the official road.

In a mansion on Xuanwu Street, an old man in a purple robe leaned on the soft couch in his study to take a nap.

Somewhere in the palace, someone looked at the peach blossoms falling in the courtyard, thought of the mountain col in the north of the city, and thought of how many peach blossoms in the mountain col could be left after a night of spring rain, and couldn't help but sigh.

The white tower, which had stood for many years, had a pair of eyes that had been closed for ten years moving in the darkness, and there was a vague possibility of opening.

There is also a young man bathed in the spring breeze, still wielding a knife-

The end of "Prologue, How Difficult the Road Ahead" is