"I heard that Your Majesty tosses and turns day and night and can't sleep, and the barbarian girl has a strange fragrance, and Your Majesty can sleep peacefully with her. So His Majesty stayed in the Funing Hall all night, and got up every morning to paint the thrush for the barbarian girl, so that it was not tender and sweet. ”

Chu Zhixia sat by the fire loudly, saying ambiguous spring words, but his face was as cold as the middle of winter. Bai Ziche sat opposite her, put his hand on the flame, and the warm blood rushed to the limbs again.

There were only two of them in this room in Blacksmith Alley.

"You chose to hide the background of the sinking boat, did you expect this day a long time ago?" Bai Ziche asked.

"Yes." Chu Zhixia said without thinking, "I know better than you, and even more than Your Majesty himself, what kind of person he is. ”

The emperor may have really indulged in the mountains and moons, and he has really missed the mountains and moons for decades. But the emperor was far less loving than he said he was. His fascination with Shanyue comes from the rare complexion of the Loulan goddess in the world on the one hand, and the rebellion caused by the control of the regent over the years.

At first, the emperor only regarded Shanyue as his only - the only woman who belonged to him in this involuntary court and could make him feel that he was an emperor. The humiliation and suffering suffered by the emperor in the court struggle, and his powerlessness in the court and political struggle, painted layer after layer of complex feelings for his feelings for Shanyue.

Maybe back then, he really looked forward to the birth of Shen Zhou. But he has been emperor for too many years, and killing, exploiting, and suspicion fill his life. He was no longer the father who would promise his infant child the supreme position in the world. ”

Chu Zhixia said lightly: "When he really tastes the taste of power, when he can kill a person with a word, and when he tramples Zhuang Shoufu and the regent under his feet, it doesn't matter whether he was sincere at the beginning or not." He didn't want to give Shen Zhou everything the best, he just wanted to make up for Shan Yue's regrets in Shen Zhou and exercise the authority of the emperor. ”

Bai Ziche suddenly laughed, with a mockery in his smile.

Chu Zhixia raised his eyes to look at him.

"I just suddenly remembered that both Bai Yi and Bai Huan had actually expected their father's gaze before they were desperate and desperate to seize the throne." Bai Ziche said mockingly, "If they knew that their father was such a person, would they have gone a little more insane?" ”

Chu Zhixia did not comment, and shrugged his shoulders to indicate that the ghost knew.

"You didn't bring the sinking boat today." Bai Ziche meant something.

"He doesn't like to hear about the Emperor." Chu Shixia said lightly.

"Hopefully he won't hate me in the future."

Chu Zhixia was silent for a moment, and glanced at Bai Ziche. The two of them smiled in understanding, and that smile was not pleasant or kind, but had a little smell of blood, like beasts meeting on a narrow road showing their fangs to each other.

——

There was a light snow in the morning, and the cold air kept piercing the heart and lungs with the breath. Shen Zhou sat sullenly under the eaves, holding a small box in his palm. He seemed to be motionless, but in fact, he was watching and listening to all directions, and as soon as Chu Zhixia entered the courtyard, he pricked up his ears.

"What are you doing sitting here, isn't it cold?" Chu Shixia stretched out his hand and rubbed it on Shen Zhou's frozen pink face, and said with a smile, "I looked at it from a distance, and I thought that whose little snowman it was, was so aggrieved that it was about to melt." ”

Shen Zhou looked at Chu Zhixia with resentment, and handed her the box with a layer of warmth in his hand.

It's the box of ointment for chilblains.

"I have to wipe it every day." Shen Zhou complained, "You said that. ”

Chu Zhixia smiled dumbly, picked up the small box and said, "It's my fault." I forgot it when I went out in the morning. ”

Shen Zhou said very understandingly: "It's okay. ”

"But you can't wait for me here. It's too cold and you're going to get sick. Chu Zhixia took Shen Zhou's hand and walked into the house, and Shen Zhou obediently sat down in the room with her hand.

Yuzhu looked at the worthless look of the person she couldn't call into the house early in the morning, and she called it evil in her heart, and turned her head to the kitchen to serve hot and hot mutton soup. Chu Zhixia warmed Shen Zhou's hand before slowly digging out a piece of ointment and rubbing it on Shen Zhou's hand.

Shen Zhou's hand was used to holding the sword, grinding out layers of calluses and tiny scars. Chu Zhi Xia Mo held his distinct bone joints and did not speak for a long time.

"What's wrong?" Shen Zhou asked keenly.

"Nope." Chu Shixia covered his hand and raised a smile, "Let's drink soup." ”

——

Weiyang Palace.

When Bai Ziche walked into the warm spring-like palace, he heard the sound of warm and unrestrained music. The floor was covered with a fluffy blanket, and large red flowers bloomed. Ladies dressed in light veils perform whirlwind dances on the carpet, spreading and going barefoot, with bells on their ankles and the sound of music.

Bai Ziche's eyes were staring at the floor from beginning to end, and he didn't mean to lift it up in the slightest. He respectfully saluted in the direction of the emperor, refusing to take half a step beyond the thunder pool.

The emperor was wearing only a thin undershirt, shaking his wine glass, and glanced at Bai Ziche lazily.

"Prince, you're here." The emperor said nonchalantly, "Why don't you look up?" ”

The barbarian woman was in a beautiful posture, her full lines and honey-colored skin could be faintly seen through the tulle, and a warm fragrance was faintly floating in the air. When the bell stopped, Bai Ziche knew that her dance was over. The beautiful bell walked towards the emperor and stopped in his arms.

"Erchen doesn't dare." Bai Ziche said.

The emperor didn't force it, he played with the jaw of the beauty in his arms, and said: "Ulma dances beautifully, but it's a pity that there is no dance dress in the palace that can match her." I ordered people to find cicada wing yarn from the south of the Yangtze River, embroidered with the finest gold wire, and decorated with pearls the size of rice grains. It's a pity that the cicada wing yarn is gone, why don't the prince take a look at this dance dress? ”

Bai Ziche only felt that the low-hanging cervical vertebrae were almost crushed.

"Why not?" The Emperor asked coldly.

"The son is guilty, please punish the father."

"You are guilty, what are you guilty of?"

The emperor put down Ulma, slowly walked in front of Bai Ziche, and said in a cold voice: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has a kind heart and has pardoned the palace people who did something wrong. Now inside and outside the court, everyone knows that I want to take someone's life for a cicada wing yarn, and I was stopped by you. What a virtuous prince, a good merciful young master. ”

"This matter is definitely not the ...... that the sons deliberately promote"

Bai Ziche's words were forcefully interrupted, and the liquor in the emperor's hand poured over his head, flowing down his hair crown and sideburns into his clothes. The emperor smashed the wine glass on Bai Ziche's face lightly, full of humiliation.

The wine was cold, and Bai Ziche couldn't help but shudder.

"I'm still alive, don't be too anxious." The Emperor scolded, "Get out." ”

——

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, are you okay?"

Sun Yan knocked on the wall of the carriage and asked cautiously.

Bai Ziche calmly wiped the wine off his face and said, "It's okay." ”

Sun Yan was a little worried.

When Bai Ziche came out of the Yang Palace, his expression was calm, but he was really embarrassed. The palace people in Weiyang Palace frequently looked sideways, and Bai Ziche didn't care. Sun Yan searched his stomach to find some comforting words, but found that the book was less hated when it was used, so he could only ask dryly, "Are you okay?"

"That eunuch that day, is it Wang Xi's person?" Bai Ziche asked.

Sun Yan nodded and said, "My subordinates sent someone to ask, and that person is one of Wang Xi's godsons." That day, he was so frightened by His Highness that he was unable to possess his body, and after His Highness left, he almost lost his incontinence on the spot. ”

Bai Ziche commented coldly: "Children and grandchildren, endless. Is it true that you can't kill endlessly? ”

Sun Yan didn't dare to answer.

——

Ghost City.

Ghost markets are rife with poverty, chaos, and lust.

Some people are looking for a place to live here, living a life with a future and no tomorrow; Some people control the business in the dark places of the Great Zhou, and earn every penny of bloody money without blinking an eye. In dark places, there are still differences between people.

"Lao Luo, are you ready for what I want?" The young man lowered his hat and asked in a low voice.

The shops in the ghost market are all small, do not hang signs, and rely on "acquaintances" to solicit business by word of mouth. This shop is cramped and cramped, with a slender and long strip, crowded between the coffin shop and the grain stack in the market. The shop is not well lit, except for a window facing the drain behind it, which lets in a dim light.

Lao Luo is a flat-headed and straight-faced man from the Central Plains, with an honest look, it looks like he was hit on the left cheek, and he will only send the right cheek to the top with a sullen head. He has a red band on his head and a layer of cyan stubble on his chin.

"I've told you, that thing is a headless business." Lao Luo stammered a little, stared at the young man and said, "You don't even dare to show your face, how dare I dare to sell things to you?" ”

"How many of the businesses in the ghost market don't lose their heads?" The young man was a little impatient, put a box of gold ingots on the counter, knocked on the box and said, "With this box of gold, are you still afraid of losing your head?" The sky is high and the birds can fly, so why live in this ghost city. ”

Lao Luo smiled bitterly: "I'm just afraid that I will have my life to earn, and I will not have my life to spend." ”

"I can add money." The young man lowered his voice and said, "Two boxes of such gold ingots." ”

Lao Luo's face tensed for a moment, and then he said loosely: "Okay...... All right. Then you will pick up the goods in two days. I will take this box of gold ingots as a deposit. ”

The young man breathed a sigh of relief and agreed.

It wasn't until the young man's back disappeared from sight that Lao Luo softened his legs and asked tremblingly, "I have already done what you asked, is this okay?" ”

The counter of the ghost market shop is semi-enclosed, leaving only the height and width of the upper body of a person, and it is also separated by iron bars to prevent ill-intentioned people. In the blind spot of the young man's vision, Chu Shixia raised his hand to lift the hood, and lightly withdrew the drinking snow that was against Lao Luo's waist.

"Don't be nervous." Chu Zhixia said, "No one dares to smash the business of the ghost market. ”

"Today I colluded with the government...... Collusion, who will dare to do business with me tomorrow? Lao Luo's smile became more and more bitter.

"This is not called collusion with the government," Chu Shixia smiled slightly, "I just facilitated this business for you." As for whether this person can get the goods, and whether he has the life to leave the imperial capital after getting the goods, it depends on how hard his life is, and it has nothing to do with you. ”

"Feather Feather Feather...... Lin Wei still has a woman? Lao Luo looked at Chu Zhixia in surprise.

"It's all said that I'm not Yu Linwei." Chu Zhixia patted him on the shoulder, revealing a mouthful of snow-white teeth, and said with a smile, "But if you dare to sell this picture, I guarantee that none of your family can be kept from the children waiting to be fed to the grassy tombs." ”

Lao Luo swallowed a mouthful of saliva nervously, and slipped to the ground. Chu Zhixia took a step back inexplicably, and naturally pressed his hand on the hilt of the sword. saw Lao Luo pouting and lifted the floor under his feet.

The floor is filled with sandbags, and there will be no obvious hollow sound when you step on it, but you will feel that the house is old, so the floor will shake slightly. Lao Luo took out the box tightly wrapped in oiled paper from under the sandbag, held the box above his head with both hands and handed it to Chu Shixia.

Chu Zhixia cautiously picked open the box with his sword.

"That's the picture." Lao Luo was really nervous, but he spoke fluently, "The design of the rhino horn punch and the trebuchet." ”

Chu Zhixia didn't speak, flipped the detailed design drawings with the blade of his sword, and his heart surged with killing intent.

"Master Jun, I won't do this deal anymore." Lao Luo lowered his eyebrows and said, "If you let me go east, I will never go west, I just ask you to let me live." I assure you that this image is for my personal collection and has never been sold to anyone. ”

"This thing, only you have in the ghost market?"

"In the entire Great Zhou, except for the Armaments Division, only I have it." Lao Luo said firmly.

"You drew it?" Chu Zhixia's tone was a little dangerous.

"I bought it." Lao Luo denied it, and flattered, "I'll make it clear to you where the grandson just now came from, where he went, and how many old hens there are at home." ”

"No need." Chu Zhixia picked up the drawings and threw them on the candle flame to burn them, and said lightly, "Two days later, you and him will trade here." Give him a wrong drawing, and I'll know who he's connected with. ”

"Okay!" Lao Luo replied forcefully.

Chu Zhixia left Lao Luo's shop through the back door and pulled up his hood to cover his face.

A thin layer of ice had formed on the damp ground of the ghost market, but there was no government responsible for sprinkling salt and melting ice. A pair of frostbite-infested feet crushed the ice, and dirty snow water dripped down the crevices into the drain.

Chu Zhixia passed by countless people who were either ragged or sneaky. The stench of burning corpses in the lamp oil mill turned out to be the only source of warmth.

In the darkness of the alley, the numb-eyed woman unbuttoned her chest of clothes, and a few copper plates clanged in the broken bowl; The scrawny man with his bright eyes and leaning on a bamboo pole stared at everyone who passed by; The child, who had lost his strength from crying, curled up in his hard arms, and his body gradually became cold.

Chu Shixia stood in front of the exit of the bluestone pile, and three feet in front of him was the open and bright skylight. She glanced back at the "eighteenth floor" with a high platform, the lamp oil workshop with the lamp burning in the flesh, and the countless small and dirty dust hidden under the lamplight.

The long-awaited Shen Zhou stretched out his hand to her, standing against the snow-white light, his smooth and graceful lines exposed.

"What's wrong?" Shen Zhou saw that she was stunned and asked suspiciously.

Chu Zhixia shook his head and grabbed his hand and stepped onto the last step.

There was a light snow in the sky, and Shen Zhou opened an umbrella on Chu Zhixia's head. The two tacitly agreed that they did not speak, and slowly walked through the long street covered with snow. Shen Zhou stuffed the umbrella into Chu Shixia's hand and trotted to a candied fruit shop. Chu Zhixia stood quietly in place and watched his back, and after a while, Shen Zhou got under the umbrella with a steaming snack.

"What did you buy?" Chu Zhi Xia Qiang cheered up and asked.

"You like it." Shen Zhou fed the sweet, sour and hot preserved cherries into her mouth, and asked with a smile, "Is it delicious?" ”

This smile is too vivid, too vivid, too heartfelt, as if the gods on the thousand-year-old mural blinked. Chu Zhixia had to taste this piece of preserved cherries seriously, feeling the hot sweetness explode on the tip of his tongue, and then nodded.

"Now, can you tell me what you're thinking?" Shen Zhou said, "I can't guess. ”

"I'm thinking about my mother." Chu Zhixia said softly, "On the way out of the ghost market, I saw so many displaced people. I thought about how my mother lived here more than forty years ago, and I learned little by little about this dynasty from every notice posted by the government and from every frozen skeleton on the street. Was there a moment when she wanted to destroy this rotten, painful world? ”

"Regarding the addition, on the one hand, because the story is nearing the end, on the other hand, the author's three-dimensional life is also relatively busy, and he does not have time to stock up on a large number of manuscripts, so he will not arrange it for the time being. If there is any addition, I will let you know in advance."