East Palace.

"In this East Palace today, no one wants to take anything away."

The guards of the East Palace and the Yulin Guards were lined up on both sides, one color of silver-white light armor, and the other color of black and gold light armor. There was a black coffin in the middle, and the third prince pressed one hand on the lid of the coffin, and it was slapping. Bai Ziche was wearing a plain robe, and the snow was sprinkled all over his body.

"Third brother, the people of the Huo clan have already gone north and will arrive in the imperial capital in a few days. Huo Changgongzi's coffin stopped in the East Palace, which was not in accordance with the rules, and placed the coffin outside, which was also the intention of his father. Bai Ziche rolled up his sleeves and said lightly, "Don't embarrass me." ”

"What are you that deserve my embarrassment?" The third prince narrowed his eyes, pointed to Bai Ziche's nose and said, "You are a slut in life, and you actually want to point fingers in my brother's East Palace." I just burned this coffin, and you can't carry it away. ”

The third prince proudly glanced at everyone standing in the snow, and said sonorously: "Every brick and tile, grass and tree in this East Palace belongs to my brother. No one is allowed to move without my eldest brother's words, or I will cut off his head!" ”

Everyone knew that Bai Huan was deposed from the position of the East Palace and confined to the mansion outside the palace. But the third prince just didn't leave the East Palace, not only did he not leave, but he didn't allow anyone to leave, and he wanted to keep everything as it was when Bai Huan was still there.

It seems that this will keep Bai Huan's dignity and his position as the prince.

"Third brother, whose is the East Palace, you don't count." Bai Ziche said rarely and forcefully.

Bai Ziche raised his eyes, and his palms were also pressed on the coffin, and his whole body was tense, like a taut bow and arrow. His eyes are always lowered and do not look at people, and occasionally look at people, but they are also hazy, and he looks extremely weak.

At this moment, the sharp edge hidden in the clouds and mist suddenly stabbed out, and the cold light was revealed.

"Huo Changgongzi has a meritorious reputation, and the Great Zhou Law is above, and his coffin is not something you can burn if you say it." Bai Ziche said loudly, "Let go." ”

"Bai Ziche, you finally can't pretend anymore, right?" The third prince narrowed his eyes and sneered, "I knew that you were a wolf with ambition, and I should have pressed you to drown in the lotus pond back then." ”

"Huo Changgongzi was even in the middle of the three yuan back then, and he was a popular folk singer, and he couldn't tolerate the third brother's contempt and humiliation." Bai Ziche said calmly and coldly, "Let go." ”

The third prince was so angry with him that he immediately pulled out the saber of the guards around him and swung it at Bai Ziche's neck. A blood splash, dots of vermilion sprinkled on Bai Ziche's snow-white cheeks, and Bai Ziche's eyelashes fanned, but they didn't move at all.

Cheng Yuan held the blade, and blood dripped from his palm on the coffin, and the color was deep.

"Third Highness, don't mess around." Cheng Yuan said, "You don't want to cause trouble for His Highness, do you?" His Majesty would not be happy if he knew about today's events. ”

"Cheng Yuan, aren't you Chu Zhixia's good dog?" The eyes of the third prince turned between the two of them, and they pulled out a serious smile, "It turns out that the two of you have long been embarrassed, and you have joined forces to calculate my brother." ”

"Third brother is cautious." Bai Ziche lowered his eyebrows.

A copper plate flew into the air and hit the third prince's wrist impartially. The third prince was in pain, his wrist was out of force and he couldn't hold the knife, and Cheng Yuan snatched the knife away.

"There are assassins, and you still don't want to protect the Third Highness to go back to the house?" Bai Ziche immediately made a decision and shouted.

The Yulin guards rushed up, squeezing the East Palace guards and the three princes to leave the coffin and push them into the house. The third prince scolded, but he couldn't resist the many people in Yulinwei, and he couldn't move. Bai Ziche waved his hand, and the rest of the people lifted Huo Wensong's coffin and left the East Palace quickly.

Bai Ziche looked in the direction where the copper plate was flying, and a cyan figure disappeared behind the snowy plum blossoms.

——

Blacksmith Alley.

Bai Ziche used an iron skewer to stir the charcoal fire in the stone stove, and the flying sparks lit up in mid-air. Chu Zhixia sat on the side, looking intently at the ice skate under the eaves outside the window. She was wrapped in a crane feather and stiffened her back as if she were tired.

"The Huo family is coming, what should the second son of Huo do?" Bai Ziche found a way to talk.

Of course, Chu Shixia couldn't admit that she was the assassin who robbed Huo Wenbai, but as long as Huo Wenbai bit him to death and didn't see the assassin's face, and he didn't know why the assassin arrested him, this matter could be hidden. After all, Huo Wenbai is the victim party, and the Huo family is a new mourner, so no one will hold on to him.

"I originally wanted to make a game, give Yan Xiaohou a credit, and naturally let the second son appear in front of people." Chu Zhixia lowered his head and smiled bitterly, "But Second Prince Huo disagrees." ”

Bai Ziche was surprised, "He doesn't want to go back?" ”

But Huo Wenbai is the Huo family after all, and the head of the Huo family only has three brothers and sisters under his knees. A son and a daughter died unexpectedly, and the remaining son did not know whether he was alive or dead, how could they bear it? If he misses this opportunity, Huo Wenbai will have to live a life of hiding and hiding.

"He said he didn't want to be Huo Wenbai anymore." Chu Zhixia looked at Bai Ziche, "Your Highness, he wants to see you." ”

"See me?"

"Huo Wenbai said that he wants to be the emperor."

——

Crimson Pavilion.

Jiang Qiao won a round at the poker table, and quietly lost the money he had won, which made the guests at the table excited. Who has what cards in a table, Jiang Qiao remembers clearly, how to win and how to lose, it is all in her mind.

Jiang Qiao pushed away the hand that the guest kneaded the nest on her fingers, smiled and pulled the gauze on her shoulder, turned around and walked out of the small building. The maid handed Jiang Qiao a big coat, she wrapped it tightly, and walked to her small house alone with an umbrella.

The gold dust and rouge from the corners of her eyes have not yet been wiped off, and her expression suddenly becomes cold, but there is a different style.

Jiang Qiao pushed open the courtyard door and saw Chu Zhixia beckoning to her under the corridor.

"Looks like there's a guest today." Jiang Qiao smiled.

Chu Zhixia also smiled, but he couldn't say how tired he was, "Don't let people in." ”

Jiang Qiao nodded.

Chu Zhixia turned around and entered the house.

This side house is used to house Huo Wenbai, and Jiang Qiao said to the outside world that this is the pianist she invited to take care of the guqin instruments. The house was so clean and tidy that it didn't look like a living person's quarters, except for a charcoal fire to add some heat.

Huo Wenbai cleaned himself up properly, and his hair was meticulously combed. He was dressed in a scholar's green shirt, with an animal-skin blanket on his knees, and a white muslin belt wrapped around his thin ten fingers—the strings he had been strangled when he was helping Jiang Qiao repair the piano.

Bai Ziche sat opposite him, a little restrained, and looked at Chu Zhixia as if asking for help.

Chu Zhixia coughed dryly and stood behind Bai Ziche.

"Fourth Highness, right?" Huo Wenbai was the first to speak, his voice hoarse, "I remember that His Royal Highness was born by a palace maid, who lost his mother before he was ten years old and was raised under the queen's knees. But the queen didn't care about her son, so Her Royal Highness grew up with a painter in the palace. ”

Bai Ziche put it on his knees, his fingers curled up, and he scratched the hem of his clothes.

"That painter seems to have committed suicide years ago, accused of self-theft?"

"He didn't steal from the guard." Bai Ziche said bluntly.

"That's what the world says." Huo Wenbai's eyes were clear and cold, like a dagger with a flickering cold light, and he wanted to break Bai Ziche's heart, liver, spleen and lungs, "Even if one thing is fake, as long as the world believes that he is true, then he is true." ”

"Something that's fake will always be fake." Bai Ziche's Adam's apple rolled, pinching his palm painfully, "Even if there are a thousand or ten thousand people who repeat the lie, as long as one person remembers the truth, then he will never be true." ”

"Your Highness thinks that he is the one who will always remember the truth?"

Huo Wenbai shook his head, "Anyone can say beautiful things." People who have been condescending for a long time will become unrecognizable. For example, the deposed prince was not a tiger and wolf at the beginning, but he enjoyed the privilege of killing for a long time, and after knowing how easy it was to kill someone, he didn't take human life as a human life. ”

Huo Wenbai's gaze seemed to penetrate Bai Ziche's skin and penetrate his heart, "How dare Your Highness guarantee that you will not change?" ”

"The second son is not right." Bai Ziche retorted.

"What's wrong?"

"The Chu clan in the clouds has been in the army for generations, and there are no more lives in their hands. But are all the Chu clans in the clouds cold-blooded killing machines? Bai Ziche's voice was not high but firm, "It is precisely because I know the fragility of human life that I must restrain the sword in my hand." ”

Chu Zhixia's expression moved slightly, and when he looked at Huo Wenbai again, he was a little more convinced. Huo Wenbai obviously got the answer he wanted.

"If a person in a high position holds a sword without a sheath, it is a calamity for the world." Huo Wenbai finally showed a faint smile and nodded.

"Fourth Highness, if you become an emperor, you must not just be an emperor." Huo Wenbai suddenly said, "In the eyes of the emperor, there must be gains and losses, but there must be only gains and losses of interests. If even the emperor doesn't care about innocence and truth, how dark will this world be? ”

"Ziche understands."

Huo Wenbai straightened his sleeves, his legs were crippled, and he could only rely on his half-crippled waist when he sat upright. Despite the hard work, Huo Wenbai still did not relax in the slightest. His demeanor is calm and elegant, as if he is in a study hall with the sound of books.

"I am Jiangnan Huo's Wenbai, the word Zhong'an. Jingtai was the last champion of the Lingdi Dynasty in the ninth year of the three yuan. He once served as a revision editor in the Hanlin Academy, but was deposed for refusing to bribe eunuchs, and resigned to return to Jiangnan to teach for ten years. ”

"I have the art of following the dragon, and I want to help His Highness to Qingyun, His Highness is willing to worship me as a teacher?"

Bai Ziche put his hands in front of his forehead and kowtowed heavily to the ground.

"Ziche, meet sir."

Huo Wenbai smiled with satisfaction.

——

Bai Ziche is gone.

Chu Zhixia sat under the eaves with Huo Wenbai, and the snow was fine.

"Are you really not going back to Jiangnan?" Chu Zhixia asked softly.

"Not back."

"I don't see your parents?"

"I don't have the face to see them." Huo Wenbai shook his head, "Just let them think I'm dead." My uncles and uncles are all kind people and will take care of them on my behalf. ”

"Second son, you have thought clearly. If you want to take this road, there will be no Huo Wenbai in this world, only an unknown pianist hiding in a brothel. Chu Zhixia looked at him seriously, "If you regret it, I can go and talk to His Highness." Your Highness will understand you. ”

"Miss, why are you getting involved in the affairs of the imperial capital?" Huo Wenbai asked thoughtlessly, "You have hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers in the frontier at home, not to mention Your Majesty, the regent will not easily touch you." Why would you risk your life? ”

Chu Zhixia let out a long breath, and the white qi escaped in the cold air.

"Does this world look quite peaceful?"

Chu Zhixia smiled, "It seems that there are only those big people in the court who fight to the death." However, there are still many people who have been encroached upon and have to pawn their children and sell their daughters to change their lives; There are also people who are sold into fireworks by their biological parents and are pointed at for the rest of their lives; Others could not even eat, and fell from city to city, dying on the side of the road to feed the wild dogs. ”

Chu Shixia stretched out his hand to catch a snowflake, and said softly: "This is actually a troubled world. ”

"Born in troubled times, today and tomorrow, who can say for sure? Maybe tomorrow the emperor will kill me, cut my family's throne and military power, and want my family to die without a place to bury? The corners of Chu Zhixia's lips were smiling, but his eyes were very cold.

"In troubled times, who can be alone?" Huo Wenbai also smiled and said: "I went back to Jiangnan today, and I can only guard my parents for the rest of my life and watch them suffer for me." But if I stay in the imperial capital, one day the Haiyan River will be clear, and my parents will be able to live for a long time. ”

"I'm the same as you." Huo Wenbai said.