Although the sun was still warm, the sky above the palace of Wugong County was shrouded in clouds.

Zhao Dezhao lowered his head and walked silently to his mansion in Beijing, no one knew what he was thinking at the moment. His steps were very heavy, and his steps were very slow, as if he was still apprehensive about the words of Zhao Guangyi, and as if he was planning something.

It was only half a mile from the palace to the palace of Wugong County, but he walked for half an hour. Zhao Dezhao is not often in Tokyo, and the palace is naturally not as luxurious and spacious as the Chenzhou Mansion, but the spacious and heavy mansion gates, the tall and magnificent courtyard walls, and the pavilions and palaces that rise from the ground all show the elegance and nobility of the royal family.

When the guards guarding the door saw Zhao Dezhao coming back, they were busy smiling, "Chitose, you're back." I heard that Chitose just entered the palace to face the saint and ask for rewards for the generals in the army, can everything go well? ”

Zhao Dezhao didn't answer, stretched out his hand to the guard, and said, "Do you have a knife on you?" Quickly bring it and borrow it from this king. ”

The guard was stunned when he heard this, and then smiled: "Chitose, what are you kidding?" Although the little one is a guard in your palace, he is on an errand in the palace, and he doesn't dare to carry a knife on his body. ”

Zhao Dezhao let out a "hmm", no longer paid attention to the guard, and immediately walked into the mansion quickly. As soon as he stepped into the door of the mansion, a team of family members came over, and everyone saw Zhao Dezhao hurriedly stopped, gave a deep salute, and said in unison: "The little one has seen Chitose!" ”

After they finished speaking, they were about to walk past Zhao Dezhao, Zhao Dezhao hurriedly stopped a few people, and said seriously: "Do you have knives on you?" ”

After listening to Zhao Dezhao's words, the family members were also stunned, and then said with a smile: "Chitose, we are on an errand in your house, how dare we carry a murder weapon on our bodies." If we are searched by the officials, they will definitely say that we intend to assassinate the prince, but I am afraid that even a hundred heads of the small ones will not be enough to cut off. ”

Zhao Dezhao sighed slightly, waved his hand at the family, and the family bent down and walked around him. Zhao Dezhao frowned slightly, looked not far ahead, a not too big, but very delicate and elegant pantry, and walked over quickly without hesitation.

In the afternoon, the sun slanted into the pantry, and the room was warm.

At this time, the door of the pantry was closed, and Zhao Dezhao sat alone on a chair in the room. Next to him was a small round table of red sandalwood, on which was placed a cup of fragrant tea, and the steaming water vapor was constantly wafting out from the gap between the teacup and the tea lid, filling the room with fragrance. Also on the table was a plate of fresh, crisp pears and a sharp fruit cutter.

Zhao Dezhao stared at the cup of fragrant tea with his eyes, quietly watching the water vapor rise little by little, and then disappear into the air little by little. He looked at it for a long time, subconsciously picked up the fruit cutting knife with his right hand, and picked up a crisp pear on a plate with his left hand.

Before his hand could touch the largest crispy pear, the closed door was suddenly slowly pushed open from the outside, and a masked man in black flashed in. This person was dressed in a black suit, but his hands were empty, and he didn't have any blades around his waist or behind his back.

He slowly closed the door and slowly approached Zhao Dezhao. Everything about him seems to be very slow, but in fact it is extremely fast, so fast that it attracts the attention of the patrol family in the house, and even Zhao Dezhao, who is sitting directly opposite him, does not seem to react.

When Zhao Dezhao had a premonition that danger was coming, the man in black was already standing in front of him, and he was sneering helplessly and proudly at himself. Zhao Dezhao looked at the man in black with a somewhat panicked expression, "You...... Who is you? What are you going to do to this king in broad daylight? ”

The man in black sighed and said in a deep voice: "Your father once forced my father to death, and this revenge has been engraved in my heart for nearly twenty years. Now the official family also wants your life, and it happens to kill two birds with one stone, so I will take the holy order. Don't blame me after you die, if you want to blame, blame you for being Zhao Kuangyin's son! ”

Zhao Dezhao stood up almost instinctively, picked up the fruit cutting knife in his hand, and stabbed the man in black in the heart. The man in black sneered, grabbed Zhao Dezhao's wrist, and said coldly: "It's up to you, you also want to do it with me?" ”

The man in black said, pushing Zhao Dezhao's wrist hard, pushing the sharp fruit-cutting knife between his necks. Zhao Dezhao opened his mouth to call for help, but before he could make a sound, the man in black instantly pushed the knife in another half an inch, cutting straight between his neck. Then he grabbed Zhao Dezhao's wrist and swung it to the side, instantly cutting a deep wound between Zhao Dezhao's neck.

Zhao Dezhao fell to the ground in pain, and blood continued to spurt out from his neck, staining the blanket on the floor of the tea room with blood. His eyes glared, as if he was about to breathe fire, he pointed at the man in black unwillingly, his lips silently opened and closed up and down a few times, and then slowly closed his eyes.

Seeing this, the man in black squatted down, probed Zhao Dezhao's snort, and made sure that Zhao Dezhao was dead, so he pushed open the door and walked out slowly.

Not long after the man in black left, a small servant walked to the pantry with a plate of lychees with a smile. He walked to the door and whispered, "Chitose, your favorite lychee is here!" ”

Zhao Dezhao has excellent ear power, in the past, when people came to deliver things, he always beckoned them to come in as soon as possible, but the little guy didn't even shout a few times and didn't see the prince answer, and he couldn't help but feel a little confused. He had to tiptoe open the door of the pantry, but was stunned by the scene in the room! Waiting for him is no longer the taciturn prince Zhao Dezhao, but the blood stains all over the ground and the corpses in pools of blood. The little guy screamed in horror, and the plate in his hand and the lychees on the plate rolled to the ground.

"Chitose!" The little guy forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, ran to the front, and hugged Zhao Dezhao's corpse, which had been stained red with blood. His hands trembled uncontrollably, and he stretched out a hand tremblingly to probe Zhao Dezhao's snort, but the result of the test made him let out a series of exclamations.

The screams of the little guy soon attracted everyone in the house, and they all put down their work and ran quickly towards the pantry. At first, everyone only thought that the prince had lost his temper and beat people uncharacteristically, but when they saw Zhao Dezhao's corpse holding a fruit knife soaked in a pool of blood, everyone was shocked.

A few family members recalled the scene when Zhao Dezhao asked them for a knife, and they suddenly had an answer in their hearts. One of the slightly older family members let out a long sigh, "Alas, it must be that when Chitose entered the palace to face the saint, he said something wrong and was reprimanded by the official, so he couldn't think of killing himself for a while......"

Everyone nodded their heads, "That's right, it must be like this." Chitose looks weak and deceitful on the surface, but he is very strong in his bones, and it must be that the official family said something too heavy, which made Chitose depressed, so he committed suicide. Everyone lamented and mourned the deceased prince, and they all cried at this time.

The old man Ding was about to send someone to report the funeral in the Eight Princes' Mansion, but Zhao Defang was already holding a golden mace at this time, and he strode in from outside the mansion. When everyone saw that the Eight Kings were coming, they hurriedly greeted him, knelt down at his feet, and cried: "Eight Kings Chitose, we slaves should be damned, we didn't protect the King of Martial Arts, he ...... He killed himself......"

Zhao Defang was stunned when he heard this, and said in disbelief: "What did you say? Brother Wang, did he kill himself? That's impossible! This king and brother Wang have only been separated for an hour, how can he die! You're kidding this king! ”

The old man Ding said with tears in his eyes: "Chitose, the body of the king of martial arts is in the pantry, if you don't believe it, go and see for yourself." ”

Zhao Defang rushed into the pantry like crazy when he heard this, and really saw Zhao Dezhao's body still lying in a pool of blood. He only felt that his eyes were dark, the blood in his chest was churning, and a warm feeling surged up in his throat, followed by a fishy sweetness.

"Boom!" Zhao Defang held his body on the ground with a wedge, so that he did not faint. At this moment, he only felt that he wanted to cry without tears, he wanted to speak without words, his chest was full of grief and doubts, but he couldn't say a word.

Lao Ding cautiously walked to Zhao Defang's side and said in a low voice: "Chitose, as soon as the prince returned to the house, he asked us for a knife. We only thought Chitose was joking with us, and we didn't take it too seriously, but he locked himself in the pantry and killed himself with a fruit cutter. It's useless to blame us, if we had discovered Chitose's strange appearance earlier, maybe this tragedy wouldn't have happened. ”

Zhao Defang shook his head slightly, squatted down and picked up Brother Wang's body, tears welling up in his eyes. The boy doesn't flick when he has tears, just because he hasn't reached the sad place. Zhao Defang hugged Zhao Dezhao's body tightly and cried.

His parents died when he was young, and Zhao Dezhao, who was far away in Chenzhou at that time, was one of his few relatives. But this half-brother seems to be always busy, except for the Spring Festival when he rushes back to Tokyo to reunite with his family, the rest of the time is never in his face. So Zhao Defang's favorite festival is the Spring Festival, and the thing he looks forward to the most is to see his second brother Zhao Dezhao, the second brother who can lean down and let him ride as a horse.

Later, Zhao Defang grew up slowly, and Zhao Dezhao came back less and less. He knew that the reason why the second brother was reluctant to return to Beijing was not because he didn't miss him, but because he didn't want to see his uncle Zhao Guangyi. The relationship between the two brothers gradually became alienated due to time and distance, and it was not until after this Northern Expedition that the brothers reunited again. Zhao Defang had a thousand words to say to his brother, but he always felt that the future was long, and he never expected that this reunion was just for a permanent parting.

Farewell to life, can still be gathered, farewell to death, the most indefinite.

Zhao Defang hugged Zhao Dezhao's body to death, letting the blood soak his luxurious clothes, and he refused to let go for a moment. He and Zhao Dezhao were close together at this time, and there was no longer a distance between the two, but there was a line between life and death, isn't it the farthest distance in the world?

I don't know how long it took, Wang Jien's shrill voice suddenly came from outside the mansion gate, "The official has arrived!" Before his voice landed, Zhao Guangyi had already run into the mansion quickly.

He couldn't care about the dignity of the emperor at the moment, and while shouting the name of his virtuous nephew Zhao Dezhao, he ran quickly in the direction of the crowd. Wang Jien and the guards also followed, not leaving Zhao Guangyi for a moment, and everyone in the mansion hurriedly retreated to both sides when they saw the saint coming, and there was chaos in front of the tearoom for a while.

Zhao Defang saw Zhao Guangyi coming, and two cold rays shot out of his eyes, but he instantly retracted his gaze and cried to Zhao Guangyi, "Official, what did you just say to Brother Wang, he actually ...... I killed myself! ”

Zhao Guangyi ignored Zhao Defang, ran straight to Zhao Dezhao's corpse, and cried bitterly: "Why is the idiot so far!" After you left, I felt deeply remorseful, and I came to the house to make amends to you, but I didn't know that you had found a short sight! As he spoke, two lines of tears suddenly fell from his eyes, and the muddy tears fell on Zhao Dezhao's face one by one, as if all this had nothing to do with him at all.

Zhao Defang looked at Zhao Guangyi, and his heart was very complicated. After a long time, he endured his grief and pretended to be calm and said: "Official, how to handle Brother Wang's funeral, please show me." ”

Zhao Guangyi let out a long sigh, "Dezhao is my imperial nephew, and I will personally preside over his funeral and bury him in a beautiful manner." ”

Zhao Defang nodded and asked: "Official, Xiao Wang doesn't have many relatives in this world, do you want to invite Xiao Wang's sister Zhao Chanxue, although she has escaped into the empty door for many years, but after all, she and Brother Wang are the same mother?" ”

Zhao Guangyi groaned slightly, and finally shook his head, "No need, Chanxue has been a monk for a long time, and she must have already taken all the things in the red dust lightly." If I send someone to invite her, it will only disturb her cultivation and increase her pain, so I think it's better to forget it. ”

Zhao Defang bowed slightly, sighed helplessly, tears rolled down his handsome face, like a pearl with a broken thread. He understood the reason why Zhao Guangyi didn't let Zhao Chanxue be invited, and he understood what kind of result he would get if he insisted on going his own way, so he could only give up. It's just that the unwillingness and grief in my heart have never been calmed.

Seven days later, hundreds of officials hung their filial piety, and all the people mourned.

Early in the morning, out of the palace out of a mighty procession, many musicians holding trumpets, suona, mourning and complaining to blow the sad song of farewell to the deceased, a group of people playing the spirit flag in the mourning mourning music slowly marched forward, behind them, followed by countless monks, high roads, everyone chanted the scriptures of praying for the death of the king of martial arts. Then there was a tall and heavy coffin, carried by eight strong men dressed in filial piety clothes.

Zhao Guangyi and Zhao Defang rode on horses one after the other, following behind the huge coffin, their eyes full of tears. Behind them were civil and military officials dressed in filial piety clothes, following on foot, and everyone's faces were full of sadness.

The procession walked slowly through Junyi Street and walked slowly out of the city, and along the way stood full of people who had come to see them off, and their expressions were very sad, and many of them spontaneously followed the procession, constantly sprinkling paper money into the sky. This fashion is autumn, the eyes are full of gold, but the white of the mourning clothes and the mourning flags make the weather particularly solemn and desolate, and the paper money raised by the funeral procession is like a piece of snowflakes, falling from the air one after another.

Whether it was the hundreds of officials in the team or the people on both sides of the road, they all cried at this time. In an instant, the cries of grief resounded in every corner of Tokyo, and for a long time, people called Zhao Dezhao's name, but he could no longer hear it.

(End of chapter)