The big black umbrella resembles a black lotus flower...... Slowly flowing and drifting away in the rain and fog of Chang'an City.

Sang Sang didn't know when he let go of his hand and clenched the corner sleeve, raised his face and frowned and asked, "Young Master, what were you talking about with Xiaoman in the princess's mansion before?" I see that the faces of those jealous palace maids are ugly. ”

Ning Que looked at the little girl's calm demeanor, and couldn't help but think of the scenes that often happened in Minshan in those years, when he carried her on his back to climb from this dangerous peak to another dangerous peak, and when he stole from this cottage to another cottage, he was busy exploring the way and finding the way, and he was busy telling fairy tales to the little girl in the basket to coax her, and he was so busy that he couldn't help but rub her head with a smile and said, "Tell fairy tales...... You know I'm good at this. ”

Sang Sang asked curiously, "Which one are you talking about?" Cinderella or the three little pigs?"

"The little prince. ”

Sang Sang frowned and asked seriously, "Little Prince?"

Ning Que was stunned, thinking that this was indeed a problem.

In the drizzle of late spring, the master and servant chatted all the way to the north, passed through the Tongxiao Fang and returned to the east city, did not enter the forty-seventh lane, but walked around the alley to the deeper part of the east city, the old pen Zhai closed the door to rest today, I don't know when Sang Sang quietly hugged back a cloth tightly wrapped in the Pu knife, there are slight rain marks on the shoulders.

The rain gradually became heavier, and the pedestrians on the streets and alleys of Dongcheng were forced to return to their homes or workshops, Ning Que and Sang Sang walked to a remote slum in Dongcheng and stopped, holding a big black umbrella and standing under the eaves of a dilapidated Haotian God Temple with incense Liao Liao, looking at the workshop and silently listening to the faint sound of striking iron in the rain.

Sang Sang said quietly and softly: "In a while, the iron shop will be closed, the young masters will be busy packing up today's orders, and Chen Zixian will go back to the backyard to rest. ”

Ning Que looked at the lead clouds in the sky and silently calculated the time, estimating that the time should be almost up, handed the big black umbrella in his hand to Sang Za and said wait for me, and then took out a hat from behind him and put it on top of his head and walked towards the west of the fang, passing through the two lanes in the increasing rain, close to the backyard of the blacksmith shop in the fang.

The soles of the tough boots stepped on the potholed stone road, stepping on the stagnant water and making a soft sound, which was not noticeable at all in the rain, Ning Que looked at the simple wooden door not far away, and walked forward slowly, the left hand holding the cloth knife became tighter and tighter, silently recalling all the information of this second name in his heart.

The names on the oil paper are important figures in the Xuanwei General's Mansion Destruction Case and the Yanjing Massacre Case, which were obtained from Zhuoer's investigation when he was a spy in the military department under Xiahou's command, and the information he exchanged for his sweat and life.

Chen Zixian is forty-seven years old, the former deputy general under the command of General Xuanwei, was rewarded by the imperial court for the first treason of Xuanwei General Lin Guangyuan, and then in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, he was recorded for meritorious service and expelled from the army.

The people on the oil paper list, after the extermination case and the village slaughter case, except for two or three high-ranking officials who still enjoy the reputation of the Houjue, the rest of the people are very bad The imperial history who has died in his hands is depressed, some people are in fear all day long, and Chen Zixian behind the courtyard door in the rain in front of him is living in a downturn.

Ning Que couldn't figure out why. According to the usual inference or the common passages in the novel, the guys who had killed the loyal and good conspiracy traitors back then, when the revenge began, they must have been cooking oil and flowers in a mess, arrogant and happy, so as to make the avenging people have a more innate sense of justice and pleasure, but this is not the case, and those who are determined to take revenge and kill do not seem to live better than him.

I vaguely guessed that it should be the emperor's means but he couldn't confirm it, and he didn't want to think about it anymore, today coincided with the heavy rain, and it coincided with the summoning of the princess's mansion, which was a good time to kill and take revenge, no matter how the government investigated in the future, he would not suspect it, and he would not dare to suspect him, which is more important.

He looked down slightly at the rain dripping from the edge of his hat, and moved slowly closer to the door.

The surface of the painted wooden door was slightly wet, and his fingers felt a little cold when he pressed on the door panel, he listened carefully to the sound from the iron workshop in front of the courtyard, and listened to the sound of the heavy hammer hitting the anvil iron getting louder and louder, more and more dense, he held the cloth wrapped in the knife and slowly lifted it, and gently pushed the wooden door open with his right hand.

The old doorway shaft moistened by the rain let out a soft sound similar to a whimper, and Ning Que, who was wearing a hat, entered with a knife, calmly walked down the broken stone steps, looked at the old man squatting outside the firewood room in the courtyard, and said, "Chen Zixian?"

The old man outside the firewood room was wearing an old thin jacket, and there were traces of being scorched by years of firefire at the corners of his shoulders and sleeves, and a few blackened cotton sticks stretched out from the cracks in the crisp cloth, looking miserable. The old man's hair was tied in a haphazard manner, and his long, iron-like hands were holding an axe and a wooden block respectively, and he was chopping wood.

The old man raised his head, a strange color flashed in his cloudy eyes, looking at Ning Que who pushed open the courtyard door, looking at the shadow under the hat, wanting to see his face clearly, and said after a moment of silence: "I am." ”

Ning Que stopped, looked up slightly around the humble courtyard, and confirmed that all the apprentices were indeed in the front workshop, and there was no one in the courtyard, he turned around and closed the courtyard door, untied the strap of the hat around his neck with his right hand, and then slowly held the front handle of the cloth-wrapped knife, and continued to walk towards the old retired officer.

The hat fell on the rain.

Chen Zixian blinked slowly, his left hand, which was full of black mud in his nails, let go of the firewood, wiped it on the front of his clothes, and then reached behind his waist to hold a knife, and at the same time raised his right hand holding the axe, looked at the pale young man who came from the wind and rain, and said hoarsely: "It's finally here." ”

Ning Que's knife came.

In the old pen of Lin47 Lane, the sharp blade was sharpened with rice washing water for more than ten days, pulled out of the sheath with lightning, easily cut the old cloth tightly wrapped outside the scabbard, cut the wind and rain, and slashed towards Chen Zixian's neck.

Chen Zixian stood up with his knife, and the two knives intersected with a crisp buzz, and the rain drops on the blade splashed out.

At this moment, a rapid sound of striking iron sounded in the iron mill in front of him, covering all the sounds of knives in the courtyard.

In the majestic rain, Ning Que held the knife in both hands, moved forward and forward with an expressionless face, chopped his neck and beheaded his abdomen, and the knife stirred the wind and rain, and the knife and axe in the old man's hand snuggled and rubbed and dragged each other coldly.

Dangdangdangdang, next to the fiery stove...... The apprentices numbly clutched the red-hot iron, wielding heavy hammers and striking again and again, and the sound of wind and rain outside the workshop was so loud that they heard nothing. Baidu will hit the night bar by hand

The hissing sound, the thin robe was cut, the axe was shaken off, the wrist was cut off, the muffled sound in the wind and rain sounded continuously, the firewood pile outside the room was scattered to the ground, and Ning Que slashed seventeen knives in a moment, and Chen Zixian blocked the first sixteen knives.

Then the sound of knives disappeared, leaving only the sound of wind and rain and the thunder of hammering the cutting board.

Chen Zixian fell beside the pyre, his body was covered with mud and water stains, there were a few drops of blood on his old and swarthy face, countless cuts were cut out of the thin jacket between his chest and abdomen, and the gray cotton stretched out everywhere, and the middle one was extremely deep, all the way to his bones, and his internal organs, constantly bubbling with blood and other colors of bodily fluids.

The rain trickled down the pyre from the eaves, onto his gray hair, onto the wrinkles of sorrow on his forehead, and then ran down his swarthy cheeks, quickly flushing the few drops of blood clean.

Ning Que lowered his head and slowly retracted his knife, looking at his sharply undulating chest, looking at the extremely dangerous axe mark on his chest, he couldn't help frowning, he didn't expect that an ordinary general in Datang back then, after so many years of suffering and hardship at the bottom of the market, he still had such a strong combat effectiveness.

Chen Zixian's eyes were cloudy and weak, looking at the young man in front of him, there seemed to be a lot of phlegm in his throat, he coughed a few times in great pain, coughed up two mouthfuls of bloody phlegm, and said weakly: "I thought I had long been forgotten by this world." ”

"You are indeed the most forgotten of those people, I think it is probably because of the betrayal of the Lord and the pursuit of glory, no one in the court dares to use you boldly, and I don't know if you have regretted it all these years. ”

Ning Que wiped the cold rain on his face, looked at the dying old man and said, "But it is precisely because you have been forgotten by the world, so I think killing you will not cause too much trouble." In addition, I was admitted to the academy, and killing you is regarded by me as an essential part of the celebration, like flowers and doves. ”

Chen Zixian's old and weak eyes were full of confusion, and he said in a low voice: "Let's take a look." ”

"It's still early, and it's still a long time before your poor apprentices can complete today's order. ”

Ning Que glanced up at the sky, the rain clouds were hanging like a curtain of rain, and he couldn't see where the sun was at all, but he knew that he still had a lot of time, and said softly: "As for this kind of thing, you have made me very unhappy over the years...... So don't expect to die too happily. ”

"I have a poem to read to you. He looked at the dying old man in the pyre, without any expression on his face, and said calmly: "I am from the banks of the mountains and rivers, I am from the grassland Yan Realm, I am from the general's mansion, and I want to take your life." ”

Hearing the three words of the General's Mansion, Chen Zixian's cloudy eyes suddenly brightened, the expression on his face gradually became relieved, his trembling hands subconsciously scratched on the wet pyre, stared at Ning Que's childish face, and said in a trembling voice: "I see, I see...... The general's son is still alive, you ...... You said...... You were admitted to the academy, and Baidu beat the night bar by hand...... It's good that I've lived so tired all these years that I can know before I die...... The general's son is still alive...... It's not alive yet...... I can really look at it. ”

"Who is not tired when people live?" Ning Que looked down at the potholes in front of his feet that were hit by the rain and countless yellow and turbid water splashes, and said in a low voice: "If you want to learn calligraphy, you have to learn Olympiad mathematics, you have to learn piano painting, and you have to sit on the back seat of your mother's bicycle every weekend and run around, and in the end, the Children's Palace is more familiar than home, do you say I'm tired?"

Chen Zixian didn't understand this passage, covered the bleeding knife edge, and shook his head painfully.