Ten years of auspicious charms, midwinter.

Yang Xiaohu took the layers of sealed drawings from Lao Luo's hand, and without even looking at it, he put a box of gold ingots on the counter. Lao Luo looked at him in surprise, the only thing that the ghost market pays attention to is the silver and goods, if you leave the shop, you will not be responsible for any problems with the goods. Lao Luo saw that this young man was in a hurry, no different from rushing to reincarnate, and he couldn't help but feel weak when he collected the money.

"You've got the things, let's go." Lao Luo held the gold in his arms, and said without raising his head, "Pay the money with one hand and deliver the goods with the other, this thing is yours, except for this door, whether you use it to pad the corner of the table, or make trouble, it has nothing to do with me." ”

Yang Xiaohu's eyes were cold.

Lao Luo looked at him unkindly: "This is a ghost market, and there are the eyes of the ghost city lord everywhere." Do you still want to kill people here? ”

Yang Xiaohu softened by two points.

Lao Luo snorted coldly and said, "There are more people rushing to find death than one in the past year, it's really unlucky." Let's go! ”

Yang Xiaohu held the drawings, covered his face tightly, and walked out of this small shop. Lao Luo took out a gold ingot, shone it in the faint light, bit it hard, and smiled with satisfaction.

A slender shadow quietly observed Yang Xiaohu's whereabouts through the shadows between the pavilions, his eyes unblinking.

There was a thin whistle in the wind, like a bird flying by.

Yang Xiaohu raised his head in confusion and nostalgia, and glanced at the sky cut by the cluttered buildings.

Twenty-five streets in the imperial capital, one hundred and eight square markets, like a chessboard of the gods.

The pavilions and pavilions with flying eaves and arches, the low and filthy narrow alleys and old houses, the prosperity and decay are clearly reflected here at night. This unwilling literati leaned on the Mirror Lake and chanted poems, causing Oiran to cry sadly; The naked-debunked homeless begged for half a bowl of gruel with ice ballast, and swallowed it with the smell of blood in his throat.

As soon as Yang Xiaohu came out of the ghost market, he found that he was being followed.

The man was wearing a pale cyan cloak, like a touch of emerald in the snow, as if he didn't care about being discovered by Yang Xiaohu. She was unhurriedly attached not far behind Yang Xiaohu, whenever Yang Xiaohu thought that he had thrown her off, he turned his head and found her standing not far away.

Like a ghost.

Yang Xiaohu swallowed nervously, ignoring the reaction of the people behind him, and sped up his pace. He walked briskly through the jade fang surrounded by warblers and swallows, grabbed a flower girl who was sending off a guest, and pushed her towards the person behind him. Hua Niang's guests were drunk and about to get angry, and were thrown out by Yang Xiaohu by the shoulders.

The flower girl and the guests fell into a ball, and the old bustard and the family were flustered.

The congested flow of people briefly blocked the road.

Yang Xiaohu slapped the horse's buttocks with his backhand, and the frightened horses rampage with the carriage, causing screams on the street. Yang Xiaohu glanced back at the blocked person, and quickly jumped into the dark alley.

The pursuers leaped onto their horses and tugged at the reins before they rushed into the crowd and trampled on them. The horses turned around, and the runaway carriage rolled over and slid against the wall. The man threw himself over and jumped off with one hand on the roof of the carriage, and the carriage slammed into the wall and fell apart.

The frightened crowd looked at the man who had turned the tide.

The pale cyan hood fell, and a strand of broken hair rose and fell in the wind. The old bustard recognized the Buddha beads on her wrist and stammered, "Miss Chu." ”

Chu Zhixia smiled indifferently at the stunned crowd.

——

Yang Xiaohu didn't know how long he ran in the dark.

He listened to the sound of his heartbeat in his chest, and a faint hope burned in his heart.

"You're running in the wrong direction."

Qing Lingling's voice sounded, and Yang Xiaohu almost fell to his knees with weak legs. Yang Xiaohu looked at the person standing against the light at the mouth of the alley in disbelief. Chu Zhixia uncovered the hood with the hilt of his sword, and admired the expression on Yang Xiaohu's face with a little smile.

"Surprised, I wonder why I'm here?" Chu Zhixia snapped his fingers, and more than a dozen black shadows slowly approached from a distance.

There is no way to go up to heaven and no door to go down to earth.

"Your temporary residence is in Beetail Alley on the edge of the Jade Fang, which is a chaotic three-way zone, very close to the ghost market. But you didn't immediately return to your lodgings when you got your things, but took me around in circles. Chu Zhixia said eloquently, with a chilling murderous intent in his voice, "But there is no one in your room." ”

Not only was there no one in the house in Beewei Alley, but even the genealogy of his neighbors, Chu Zhixia had picked it up. There are no tunnels, no hidden grids, and no mezzanine canals, so it is a clean and dilapidated house.

Yang Xiaohu stared nervously at Chu Zhixia's slowly approaching footsteps, unable to listen to anything.

"Because there's no one to connect with you at all."

The gold used by Yang Xiaohu was not cast by the Great Zhou government, it was a gold nugget of pure gold, but private silver. In the history of trade between Beidi and the Central Plains, the most commonly used settlement currency was such gold. After Yang Xiaohu received the drawings, he did not check the authenticity of the drawings, but left in a hurry—as if his purpose was just to let someone know that he had obtained the ordnance drawings.

Chu Zhixia followed Yang Xiaohu all the way, and the assassins of the Nine Shadows Division also monitored him all the way from a high place, and did not find that he handed over or abandoned the drawings somewhere.

This move completely confirmed Chu Zhixia's speculation.

Yang Xiaohu's search for the ordnance design plan was full of loopholes, and before he even arrived at the imperial capital Ghost City, Yunzhong had intercepted this news.

When Chu Shixia received Chu Mingxiu's message, he had already smelled the smell of fishing bait. Yang Xiaohu's various sneaky deeds deepened Chu Zhixia's suspicions.

Yang Xiaohu couldn't bear the suffocating atmosphere, and suddenly drew his knife and rushed towards Chu Zhixia. And the black shadows standing on the high place just cast a cold gaze, and did not mean to protect Chu Zhixia.

Yang Xiaohu didn't see Xia Draw the sword clearly, he only saw a splash of silver-white light, his wrist was cold and hot, and the long knife fell to the ground. Chu Zhixia twisted his arms back, pressed his head and smashed him against the wall.

Yang Xiaohu's heart was crossed, and he immediately wanted to bite his tongue and commit suicide.

Chu Zhixia was one step ahead of him, and his jaw was twisted and dislocated with a "click". Yang Xiaohu kept his saliva and was angrily thrown to the ground by Chu Shixia's hands tied.

"Actually, what Beidi wants is not an ordnance drawing at all," Chu Zhixia said lightly, "What they want is a craftsman." ”

Yang Xiaohu's eyes widened.

"If you want to die, it's too early. The days when you are worse off than dead are ahead. ”

——

Akiba Mountain House.

Chu Zhixia spread his belt, bare feet, and sat lazily on the beauty couch. She had just finished bathing, and the scent of acacia in her hair was warm and moist moisture, like flowers and trees drenched in the rain in the grand sun. Chu Zhixia carried a cup of weak tea, smacked two sips and looked at Yuzhu dissatisfied.

Yuzhu said confidently: "In such a late night, you shouldn't be able to sleep if you drink strong tea." ”

Chu Zhixia knew that he was wrong, lowered his head and said nothing, and continued to flip through the copied dossier. The white cat crept over, stretched out half of its paws and put it on the edge of the scattered file, and cautiously glanced at Chu Shixia. Chu Zhixia glanced at it, and the white cat "meowed" aggrievedly, and got under the table with his head in his hands.

Chu Zhixia drank tea casually.

Yuzhu, who was watching the overall situation, was silent for a moment and took the cat out.

Suddenly there was a noise outside the window.

Chu Zhixia waited for a long time, but he didn't see anyone outside the window who could clearly walk through the door and come in. Chu Zhixia read some kind of information from his sluggish actions, sighed, and got up to open the window. The moment the window opened, the fine snow swirled and pounced on Chu Zhixia's face.

Shen Zhou's embrace and kiss were warm.

Shen Zhou blocked the cold wind that rushed towards Chu Zhixia from the window, tightly covered her in his arms, and held the back of her head for a slimy kiss. Shen Zhou felt the faint aroma and warmth on Chu Zhixia's body, and only let go of his hand after a while, lowered his eyes and looked at her expectantly and uneasily.

Chu Zhixia looked at those sparkling eyes, licked his lips like a disciple, and asked with a retrospective feeling: "I asked you to take Cheng Yuan to arrest people, and you went to the library to listen to the book?" ”

Shen Zhou didn't understand, and looked at her ignorantly.

"Listening to "The Legend of the West Chamber", learning Zhang Sheng to jump on the pink wall?" Chu Zhixia stared at his red ears and smiled.

"Listened a little bit." Shen Zhou whispered.

"Did you catch it?" Chu Zhixia asked officially.

"It's all taken back to Yulinwei."

Chu Zhixia held back a smile, deliberately ignored the look of the Shenzhou puppy wagging his tail, turned around and said lightly: "It's good to catch it." ”

Shen Zhou was in a hurry all of a sudden, rolled into the house, closed the window, and chased after Chu Zhixia chattering: "We searched for a long time according to the list of craftsmen of the Armaments Department, monitored from house to house, and finally led people to intercept all the people at the gate of the city in Cheng Yuan, and we also started fighting." ”

It was exactly the same as Chu Shixia expected.

Yang Xiaohu's collection of ordnance drawings was just a cover-up, and the real target of the Beidi people was the craftsmen of the Armaments Department. By drawing Chu Zhixia's attention to the ordnance drawings, the Beidi people could fish in troubled waters and take the craftsmen out of the imperial capital. The craftsmen of the Armaments Division can do so much, including forging and smelting gold and iron, designing and composing armor, and even making large siege equipment.

Perhaps from the very beginning of the peace talks, these people hid in the imperial capital, looking for suitable craftsmen.

"I'm still hurt." Shen Zhou reluctantly walked around in front of Chu Shixia, opened his eyes wide and said, "That's why I can't wait to come back to you." ”

Chu Zhixia didn't smell a trace of blood on his body at all, and said suspiciously: "What's the injury?" ”

Shen Zhou pointed to a white mark above his eyebrows that was no more than three inches above his eyebrows and was about to disappear and said, "Here." ”

Chu Zhixia glanced at the roof with a strange expression, a little hesitant.

"Look at me." Shen Zhou rubbed her chin and said unhappily, "I'm all hurt, don't you care about me?" ”

Chu Zhixia thought for a while and said, "Then I'll blow it for you?" ”

Shen Zhou nodded vigorously.

——

Roof.

Luo Tong curiously put his ear on the tile and listened in confusion for a long time. She was just about to ask Luo Shuangyi beside her, but Luo Shuangyi sat upright with her neck by her neck.

Luo Shuangyi's expression was numb: "Don't ask, don't listen, this is not what children should know." ”

——

The sky was slightly bright.

Chu Shixia carried a lamp and pushed open the door of the firewood room, illuminating Yang Xiaohu, who was leaning on the haystack. Yang Xiaohu drooped his chin and stared at Chu Zhixia with resentment on his face, as if he couldn't wait to scrape her flesh off with a knife. Shen Zhou followed closely and stepped into the firewood room, with a stone statue like a pestle behind Chu Zhixia, observing Yang Xiaohu with unkind eyes.

"I won't bring you back your jaw." Chu Shixia said, "Anyway, I don't need you to answer. ”

Chu Shixia took out a page of the file and shook it, and said, "Yang Xiaohu, a person from the imperial capital, has three generations of military membership in his family, and once served as a garrison in the East Palace. You are Bai Huan's personal bodyguard, but you were not there when Bai Huan died in the imperial capital rebellion. ”

"I guess, Bai Huan sent you to escort Bai Yu away that day, right?"

Yang Xiaohu stared at Chu Shixia deadly.

Chu Zhixia ignored him and said to himself: "The Nine Shadows Division found the body of the regent under a cliff, but Bai Yu is nowhere to be found. When the regent saw Bai Huan die in front of Miyagi, he naturally abandoned this chess piece and tried to control another chess piece to make a comeback - but unfortunately, Bai Yu lost his mind and stabbed him to death. ”

The report of Naman Mountain described the death of the regent in detail.

There are countless people in this world who hate the regent, but there are very few people who can come face to face with him. The person who killed the regent must have been close to him, and the regent was defenseless and even contemptuous of him. And he is a thief with a thief's heart and courage, but he has never killed anyone.

Any Assassin would kill the Lord Regent with only one knife and a chance to get close to him.

Shen Zhou said: "He seems to have something to say." ”

After that, Shen Zhou stepped forward to pick up Yang Xiaohu's chin.

"What I did has nothing to do with His Royal Highness King Rui!" Yang Xiaohu said viciously, "If you want to kill, you can do whatever you want!" ”

"Bai Yu asked you to come back to die, and you really worked for him." Chu Zhixia smiled disappreciatively, "Do you think it's important to me whether you admit it or not?" ”

Yang Xiaohu was stunned.

"From the moment Bai Huan rebelled, Bai Yu couldn't be His Royal Highness King Rui. In his life, Bai Yu is a definite thief, an accomplice who kills his father and the king, and a traitor who collaborates with the enemy and treason. He had no value except to tell the Beidi people about the bad things that happened in the imperial capital. Chu Zhixia said contemptuously, "Do you think that with these, Beidi will be able to break through the snow pass?" ”

Yang Xiaohu said angrily: "You thieves who steal the country, plot to kill His Royal Highness the Prince's ministers!" His Royal Highness King Rui will definitely make you pay the price! ”

Chu Zhixia slowly pushed back into the shadows that the lamp could not illuminate, and his expression was slightly stagnant. Yang Xiaohu realized something, and glared at Chu Zhixia in shock and anger.

"You tempted me." Yang Xiaohu gritted his teeth and said, "You're not sure who that person is at all." ”

"You can react a little later." Chu Shixia said coldly, "At that time, you can go to the underworld and hug your Royal Highness the Crown Prince to complain to each other." ”

From the beginning of the Beidi Mission's public provocation of the Chu clan in the clouds, Chu Zhixia had already felt the subtle contradictions. Beidi intends to promote peace talks, and the last thing that should be in conflict with it is the Chu clan in the clouds. But they just wanted to force Chu Zhixia to make a move at the banquet to test Chu Zhixia's reality.

It's as if someone has repeatedly warned the Beidi people about the danger of Chu Zhixia.

However, the Beidi people's understanding of the Chu clan in the clouds should stop at Yongxue Pass.

Therefore, there must be someone in the Beidi mission who knows everything about Chu Zhixia and Chu Zhixia's six years in the imperial capital.

"But there's one thing I didn't lie to you." Chu Shixia said, "Whether you admit that Bai Yu is treason or not, it means nothing to me. ”

"Chu Zhixia, you don't have to die!" Yang Xiaohu shouted sharply.

Shen Zhou stepped forward and smashed his mandibles with a punch. Yang Xiaohu coughed up two mouthfuls of thick blood and gasped with difficulty.

"If it weren't for you, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would not be deposed and would not have rebelled. Why did His Royal Highness King Rui go astray, kill blood relatives, and betray Sheji! Yang Xiaohu struggled to pounce on Chu Zhixia, but was swept against the wall by the sinking boat, and fell dizzy.

"You forced it."

Yang Xiaohu slid down the wall, stared at Chu Shixia and muttered, "You forced it." ”

"I forced it?" Chu Zhixia sneered.

"I gave Bai Huan a chance." Chu Zhixia said expressionlessly, "It's a pity that Bai Huan is not the Ming Monarch I want." That being the case, let the right people sit in the right places. ”

"You talk nonsense! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is clearly -"

Chu Zhixia waved his hand, and Shen Zhou slammed Yang Xiaohu's throat bone. Yang Xiaohu listened to the clicking of his throat bone, and he couldn't make the slightest sound.

"I don't want to have a pointless argument with a dead man." Chu Zhixia said.

"Luo Shuangyi: My family master is green tea."