Wangchuan Tower

The two players, on the jade catalpa table, the sunspot has been expelled from the center, and the corners are surviving. Bai Ziyu takes what he wants, which can be described as a long rainbow. The faces of the two people on the seat did not change, and they couldn't tell who was aggressive and who was about to die. Counting nine cold winters, the trees outside the door are only black branches, silent, time is frozen by the cold, everything is waiting for the end of this game.

"Master Qiqi, Lord Xu has arrived." The voice of Qingwei came from outside the door, not big but like a pebble thrown into a lifeless fish tank in winter, enough to break the tranquility. The slender fingers touched a round sunspot in the chess box, and the person on the right made a decisive move, falling without pause, and landed in the brightest place in the chess game, and the sunspot in the sun turned out to be dazzling.

"I see." Watching the defeat with white hands, it was like a deaf person witnessing the collapse of a dangerous building, "I haven't seen you for a few days, and Yan'er's chess skills are more beautiful." ”

"Hou Ye praised." The person on the right got up and took Gu Jue's robe from the maid's hand. In the cold winter, the dignitaries of Chang'an wore more mink shirts and fox jackets, at least they were willing to go out with a hand warmer. Gu Jue is not used to killing crops, thanks to the mother-in-law of Qingshan Courtyard, relying on her temper and that little bit of face that can be nagged, she has been chattering for several days, but she has put the snow fox fur that is easy to jump on the neckline, which complements Gu Jue's delicate face.

"Is Yan'er Fang waiting for the light of day or waiting for me?" Gu Jue turned around and naturally looked for the sleeve that was held in his hand, and his tone was obviously a little concerned about the chess game that ended abruptly just now. The man behind him looked up and carefully smoothed the robe at his shoulder.

"What is destined to come, it doesn't matter who goes, and no one can do it." Gently stroked the robe along Gu Jue's straight back along his shoulders, "Master Hou carelessly lost to me today, and he won't repeat the same mistakes elsewhere tomorrow." ”

"Well said." Gu Jue tucked his collar, his movements were fast, and he didn't like the touch. Gu Shiyan watched him walk out of Wangchuan Tower without looking back, and sent away all the guests in the bright and dark places, and then returned to the chess table and looked at the deflated white chess. Winter makes people suddenly feel that time stands still, and yet, the deceased is like a husband, reluctant to give up day and night. The sunlight that was eye-catching just now is now scattered in the corner of the wall, not as dazzling as it has just been.

But it doesn't matter, it's the end game on the table.

"Childe, the kitchen has prepared a meal, waiting for Childe." The girl in the goose yellow vest did not dare to look at the person who was half-hidden in the twilight on the seat, and hung her head and put her hands tightly in front of her.

"Mengdie, don't remember, eat first." Gu Shiyan walked out of the study, and the maid who passed the word hurriedly followed. "By the way, what's your name?" As soon as Gu Shiyan stepped out of the room, he suddenly remembered the maid who was nervous when he said a word just now, as if he had never seen it before.

The sudden stop was obviously unexpected by her, and she was already in a hurry, but now she kicked on the threshold, and drew a few strokes in the air with both hands, and finally stabilized her figure. "Slave Hong'er, hello to my son."

There was a threshold between the two, and Hong'er remembered her gaffe, and this time buried her head lower. Fortunately, it was getting late, and the lights in the yard had not all been lit, otherwise his embarrassment of red ears would make his son laugh even more. "Hong'er is reckless, and I ask my son to punish her." The distance was very close, and Childe's smiling breath became clear.

"It doesn't matter." Childe's voice came from overhead, a relief. "Mengdie, you can eat with Hong'er today." Gu Shiyan greeted the people who were reluctant to come out of the darkened study, and turned to leave. The cold wind blew on Hong'er's face, carrying the deep fragrance of Gongzi's clothes, which was a kind of comfort.

"Okay childe!" Mengdie extinguished the stove in the study, put a roll of paper into her sleeve, and brought it to the door. "Don't look, let's go, let's eat." Mengdie happily jumped down the stone steps at the door and stretched out her hand to greet Hong'er, who was standing still. Hong'er held Mengdie's hand, and without her own warmth, she immediately held it with two hands. Mengdie only thought that the little girl next to her was scared timidly, this is not good.

Gu Jue came out of Wangchuan Tower and saw that the red plum blossoms at the door were blooming too well, so he picked off the most prominent and unique branch and handed it to Yun Zhu, who had just spoken. "Add some life to Aoyama-in." Yun Zhu pinned the sword to his waist and held it carefully with both hands, no easier than holding the sword.

"Lord Xu has been waiting in the main hall for an hour, during which there has been no change, drinking three cups of tea, stroking his legs five times, checking coral ornaments five times, flattering the hall of calligraphy and painting once, looking east to ......"

"Stop." Listening to his aventurine bone china tea set turn into a teacup, and the beacon fire tree with coral branches and jasper leaves turned into an ornament, Gu Jue's steps in the snow were heavier. I wanted to educate me well, but when I turned around, I saw the person who was interrupted and puzzled, no, the person who raised the plum, forget it.

Aoyama-in

"Lord Xu is here, and the humble house is shining." Before seeing him, he heard his voice first, Xu Yecheng hurriedly got up and went to the door to greet him, how could he be like the head of the family. "There is really something that can't leave, are these subordinates lazy?" Xu Yecheng looked at Yun Zhu, who was holding plum blossoms, and a trace of embarrassment flashed, and he immediately changed to a sleek smile that was up and down in the sea of business.

"Thank you Lord Hou for your hospitality, the treasures in this place alone are enough for the villain to study for a day." Still wanting to show off something, Gu Jue was really worried about hearing Yun Zhu's evaluation again, so he hurriedly beckoned Xu Yecheng to get down to business. "I don't know what Lord Xu is doing today?" Gu Jue drank the hot tea and smoothed the cold air in his chest, although he was asking, his eyes never left the two finely crushed tea seeds at the bottom of the cup.

"Master Hou, the cousin of the husband of the niece of the villain recently met a nobleman, and used his family's canal fleet as a sailing head, transporting goods between Jiangnan and Chang'an until the estuary became ice, thirty scattered teams, four times back and forth." Xu Yecheng was not in a hurry or impatient, and even said a sentence that Gu Jue thought was nonsense when he heard it, this is not like a chamber of commerce owner's family waiting for more than an hour to say in the winter, Xu Yecheng looked confident and was waiting for Gu Jue to ask.

"It's really a big deal, what's the matter, Lord Xu wants to take Gu to make a fortune together?" Yun Zhu was looking for the bottle where the plum was placed, and Gu Jue pointed to the white porcelain jar on the shelf behind the right door, this red plum was still more compatible with the northern porcelain. The Aoyama Temple has long been lit up, and it is cut off from the beacon tree under the light.

"It's a deal that Hou Ye doesn't look down on, but the entrusted owner believes that Hou Ye must be interested." Gu Jue no longer wanted to go around with the middle-aged man in front of him who was dressed like a bear, and looked fixedly and stopped answering. Xu Yecheng knew his temper and explained the reasons and the reason.

Since the commander of the Shence Army was given the title of eunuch, he has served three terms, and now his power has penetrated into the envoys such as horse recruitment, mining, banquets, and iron smelting, and directly controls the relevant financial power, and the relationship is intertwined. originally thought that a group of rootless people did not have to worry about reproducing the situation that the tail of the family could not be lost, but in fact, the family did not rely on blood to rise to power. According to the emperor's grace and power, rootless people gathered together became an existence that could not be kneaded at will. Speaking of which, thousands of eunuchs enter the palace every year, but it helps to strengthen the momentum, which is more convenient than giving birth to children and educating people.

Song Tonghai, a lieutenant of the Guardian Army, who has been galloping in the imperial court for more than 40 years, and the lieutenant of the Shence Army, is taking back the gold and silver that he has scattered in the sky for half his life. Jiangnan Prefecture's urging envoy, tax envoy, two ponds to patrol the salt imperial history in the river ten years ago when the river was out of control by the Song Tonghai system under the command, Tianbao years of the festival to make half of the treasury revenue after the rebellion from Jiangnan, but the Jiangnan sent out of the tax is not with the treasury book. has been hidden for so many years, and now it is so conspicuous that declining merchants like Xu Yecheng have noticed it.

The enmity between the Gu family and Song Tonghai is known to everyone in the world. It's just that history is written by the victors, and the versions circulating among the people are all about the rebellion of the Gu family, how the lieutenant of the protector army is wise and powerful, and the thunderous power will subdue the rebellious ministers and thieves. The people of the southwest who knew the truth were far away, and they said something else, but they couldn't come to Chang'an.

In the spring of the year before Gu Panshan's death, he had just married Lin Zhi, the daughter of the young lady of Dali Temple in Chang'an, and in the autumn the Shengshang edict ordered the general of the southwest of the town to go out to pacify the invasion of the frontier, and the two sides were at a stalemate after more than a year of war. In the winter of the following year, Song Tonghai introduced the envoys of Nanzhao, and the two countries reconciled. This news was known to Gu Panshan on the front line at the latest. At this time, the struggle between the two countries became a collusion between the Gu family and the Nanzhao rebels, and the correspondence between the Gu family and the Nanzhao rebels was also searched.

Lin Zhi did not wait for her husband Gu Panshan to return from the victory, and it was rumored in Chang'an City that her husband was a rebel, saying that he was indiscriminately arguing at the border and correcting the law on the spot. The whole city was decorated with lights, and the merchants of Nanzhao brought delicious mushrooms, exquisite pottery, and dancers who could sing and dance to Chang'an, while the Gu Guogong Mansion could not even hang white flags for the Gu family who died on the battlefield. A year ago, Gu Guogong sent his son to the battlefield in order to pacify the southwest, and a year later, the Tang Dynasty sang and danced to level up, a group of harmonious music, and the original Shenwu Zhennan General became the only loser in this war.

"Hou Ye, thirty-six salt mills in the southwest, Xu family ......" Xu Yecheng naturally did not come to the Guogong Mansion to be a great benevolent person, Xu's Chamber of Commerce to his generation because of indecisiveness failed to catch the eunuch's sedan chair soaring, not only the national salt mill did not fall, the ancestors left the hanger was also divided by the far and near of the various ethnic groups, gradually lost his status, and finally could not bear the pressure of the clansmen to bet. Before the conditions were finished, Gu Jue had already interrupted.

"It's not early, Lord Xu is tired of traveling, it's better to move to the guest room to rest, Gu just came to a Jiangnan chef's house, Yangzhou cuisine is very burned, Lord Xu will help me inspect it." Gu Jue was still talking, and Yun Zhu was already going to invite Xu Yecheng.

Xu Yecheng's many years of business and economics were not in vain, and in places outside the yamen, the methods were often more cruel. Naturally, I didn't pat my head today, but when I saw that I was going to be deducted, I got up and said goodbye. "Master Hou's good intentions have become his heart, it's getting late, today's light snow, his wife and children are waiting at home, and if he doesn't wait for a long time, I'm afraid of accidents." Yun Zhu saw that he was leaving, "Master Hou." Gu Jue motioned for Yun to retreat, "Master Xu walks slowly, it's cold and the road is dark, Gu doesn't send it." ”

"Why didn't Master Hou stop him, he was worried that his family would be captured by the officials." Gu Jue suddenly felt dizzy, "Our surname is Gu, not the surname of bandits." "There are so many people in this world who can take his life, so why should he dirty his hands?

Gu family ancestral hall

The night is getting longer, the snow is fluttering, not big but very dense, Gu Jue came to the ancestral hall, there was no umbrella, and the dry snow falling in Chang'an would not soak his clothes if he shook it off before it melted. The ancestral hall has a hundred lanterns that never go out, and Gu Jue knows that the person is here every night or cutting candles and repairing the lamps or meditating in silence, and it has not fallen for a day. Gu Jue walked straight in, and before the door behind him was completely closed, he knelt down, and the snow on his body shone in the lights.

The man did not stop his movements, and when he encountered the incense candle in the high place, the hand holding the scissors trembled a little. The Gu family has gone from being the commander of a local military camp to the Gu Guogong Mansion in Chang'an, all of which are here. There is nothing in front of Gu Panshan's name, a simple tablet is placed in a corner, next to it is his wife Gu Linzhi, and there are two empty seats, which he left for himself and his wife.

It was he who personally sent his son to the political guillotine, and the Gu family, who has always disdained long-sleeved and good dancing, was taught a lesson, and with the lives of his children and grandchildren, he no longer has the face to face his ancestors and has no posterity to show him. Put away the scissors and stood in front of the lamp, the two of them were speechless. Gu Panshan got married for less than half a year and went on the expedition, even if the two were happy, but good things were grinding, there were no heirs behind him, Mrs. Lin Zhi was in a winter night for her husband's wake, and everyone was separated, and when she was found the next day, she was close to the side of her husband's coffin, holding the love token of the two tightly in her hands.

Gu Jue's bun quickly became wet and shiny. "Guogong is in good health, the wind is ......heavy in winter and March," Gu Guogong was about to leave with a cane, "Don't bother with adults." ”

"Grandpa, Song Tonghai's death is approaching." Gu Jue looked at the gray-haired old man, his hanging sleeves covering his clenched fists.

"The Gu family never plays with undecided matters." The servant at the door helped Gu Guogong away, and the cold wind blew on Gu Jue's half-wet clothes. Yun Zhu met Gu Guogong who left outside the courtyard, and hurriedly went in to look for Gu Jue after making a move, and the ancestral hall that was originally still amiable was blown away by the cold, and it didn't look as warm as just now.

Yun Zhu took off his cloak, shook the snow vigorously under the corridor, and hurriedly took the person kneeling under the hall, closed the door of the ancestral hall, and knelt with him.

On the way here, Gu Jue thought a lot, but it was not a matter of the government and the opposition. He wanted to wait to see his grandfather, where should he start, remember to tell him to take care of his body, this year is a deep winter, remember to tell him that Gu Shiyan broke his game and will come to him to play tomorrow, remember to tell him that he has arranged the compensation for Gu Jun's widow this year, Xiaoxue today, they will not feel cold, and there is a good thing, Song Tonghai is going to die.

Gu Jue regretted not thinking carefully about the order of these things. Next time, I want to talk about the news of Song Tonghai's death first, no, next time, I want to say that General Gu has been wronged. It doesn't matter if you don't listen to me, everyone in Chang'an will tell him the good news.

Gu Jue opened the door, and the incense in the house swayed in the wind, and the wind and snow covered everyone's traces. Gu Jue did not hesitate, plunged into the wind, and left his footprints on the white expanse, even if they were quickly erased.