In the tenth year of the empress's accession to the throne, the capital of the original Dayan Dynasty ushered in new changes, and at this time, less than one-third of the population still lived in this ancient city.

Passing through the gate of the palace that had lost its gate, Pei Qing and Li Yi rode across the heavenly street, and in the midst of a broken wall, they rushed towards a certain direction of the palace that had been burned down.

The two stopped in front of a small, gloomy complex, and then both rolled over and dismounted.

"This is where I was born." Li Yi motioned to Pei Qing to look at a remote house, "According to the aunts and aunts who raised me to the age of three, my biological mother is the daughter of an official eunuch, and she was confiscated to the Yeting Palace as a slave because of something in the family. ”

The two of them walked slowly, but the low eaves around them were like monsters with wide open mouths, as if they would choose to devour people at any time.

There are also traces of fire here, and the fire that spread throughout the palace did not spare this place because of the ruin.

"When I was three years old, I was so hungry that I couldn't stand it, I escaped from here to find food, and I never came back," Li Yi took Pei Qing out of the door and got back on the horse, "Now let's go and see where I lived before I was eight years old, right?" ”

The road they came and went had been cleared, and it was paved with large bluestones, and the sound of horses' hooves clattering on it made it seem extremely quiet.

"This place is the entrance to the Imperial Garden, which miraculously did not suffer from the fire. There are rockeries and pavilions in it, but there are not many attendants on duty, and I hid here before I was eight years old, racking my brains for a living. ”

Li Yi was smiling when he said this, but his tone made Pei Qing's heart twitch slightly.

She glanced up at him, and was gently held by him.

The Imperial Garden was very large, with ornamental fruit trees planted in it, and when they walked under a plum tree, the pears had just set fruit.

"I like autumn here the most," Li Yi picked a pear and handed it to the people around him, "There are a lot of things to eat, but the weather is not too cold, which can be said to be very comfortable." ”

After Pei Qing got the fruit, he took a bite without thinking about it, and then frowned: "Why doesn't this have a taste?"

The pear trees in the garden are very beautiful in shape, and the fruit is gourd-shaped, which is very cute to look at, but in fact, it is not very wonderful to eat.

Li Yi took the leftover fruit she ate, swallowed it in two bites, and said with a shallow smile: "At least this thing is not bitter."

Because of the lack of care, the barren imperial garden is overgrown with weeds, and it looks like a scene inside Liaozhai.

When the two of them walked hand in hand through a rockery, Li Yi pointed out one of the caves to Pei Qing: "This is the dormitory where I sleep in summer."

Pei Qing noticed that the cave was dark and swarthy, and the entrance of the cave was only the size of a cat, it was really hard to imagine how Li Yi got into it when he was a child.

"The stone of this rockery is very special, it is not infested by mosquitoes in summer, as long as you go in, you can sleep until dawn, comfortable, right?" Li Yi touched the arm of the person next to him with his elbow, and under her almost impossible to pull out, he left the vicinity of the rockery with him.

"You see there's a warm pavilion next to the lake over there, and I get into it in the winter, and although there's no fire in it, it's not so cold that it freezes, isn't it amazing?"

The two of them had stepped into the steps of the warm pavilion between their words, and there were only tables and chairs made of solid wood in the warm pavilion, and there was no bed.

When Pei Qing looked around for a place where Li Yi might have hidden, Li Yi said with a smile: "How can I lie on a chair and sleep, I climbed to sleep on the beams of the house, and the little eunuchs who came in to clean couldn't find it."

Pei Qing only commented thoughtfully at this time: "I didn't expect your good skills to be available since you were a child."

The two of them stood in Nuangli for a moment, looking at the lotus flowers blooming in full swing on the dilapidated lake, and were silent for a cup of tea.

It was Pei Qing who broke the silence first, she took a slight breath, and then leaned into his ear and asked, "So, where is the place where you catch mice?"

Li Yi turned his head to look at her, and there was a strange flame burning in his beautiful eyes like a falcon: "You really want to see it?"

Pei Qing shook his big hand covered with scars: "Take me there."

So the two of them walked to the entrance of the Imperial Garden, where the little chamberlains lived, and even a small kitchen, which was specially prepared for the Emperor, so that he could not lack food and drink while he was in the Imperial Garden.

"There are people in here all the time, so I have never been in," Li Yi pointed to the small kitchen and told Pei Qing, "but there is a mouse hole in the corner of its wall, and rats often go in, so I guard the hole at night and quietly catch mice." ”

After finishing speaking, he felt that his palm was tightly gripped, and the eyes of the people around him looking at him were very complicated.

"An old eunuch saw it, threw me a flint and steel, and whispered to me that I should not eat raw meat, and from that day on I had eaten barbecue." Li Yi said with emotion, "So I'm really hard, and I think it's incredible that I can live until now." ”

Pei Qing turned around and hugged him, hugging him tightly.

Li Yi lowered his eyes in surprise and asked, "Why is this distressing?"

Pei Qing arched his placket with his head and did not speak.

"One winter I was so hungry that I didn't have anything to eat anywhere, not even the mice came out, I leaned under the tree outside the kitchen, and prayed in my heart......" Li Yi gently smoothed her hair with her big hand, "Pray that a fairy sister from heaven will come down to save me, put me in warm clothes, and take me to eat a full meal......"

His front was hot, and Pei Qing's tears wet his clothes.

The wind was bleak all around, but at this moment, Li Yi knew that his heart was warm.

He lowered his head close to her ear and said in a soft voice, "Now it seems that my prayer has worked, and I have indeed waited for my fairy sister!"

……

An hour later, the two of them left the vicinity of the Imperial Garden, neatly dressed, and headed for the place where he had once lived in the palace.

The buildings inside the palace are now just a pile of blackened scraps, with the occasional crow landing on it, croaking from time to time.

"When I was eight years old, the chief administrator found me, he thought I was a strange commodity, so he began to investigate my life experience, and after the investigation was clear, he asked me if I wanted to be his adopted son, he could teach me peerless martial arts, and let me be fed and clothed."

"I was naïve and agreed right away, and after that, I went from a wild child to a seventeenth prince."

"Then in that year, the first assassination was struck."