It's been almost a month since I left Zhangcheng, and the weather is starting to get warmer. Although there was still a steep spring breeze in the morning, the new green could already be seen among the pale weeds lying low on the side of the road. Li Bochen asked the horse to walk slowly on the dirt road in the countryside, and he reached out and broke a branch from the hawthorn tree on the side.

It has just sprouted, and the leaves are timidly green. He picked the young leaves, put them in his mouth and chewed them slowly, a little sweet at first, but then a little bitter. He smiled, remembering that when he was a child, he thought it was delicious.

When he was six or seven years old, he followed the children of the village to the mountains and fields, eating the young leaves of the hawthorn trees in early spring, eating the freshly grown wild onions, and the sour ginger, and in the summer there were black nightshades, red raspberries, and caterpillars that crawled all over the cherry trees—but he didn't eat them, and he didn't eat them when they were roasted.

He remembered that his mother had beaten him again for this—that time because he had eaten a fungus, and when he got home, he could only giggle and couldn't even speak.

Thinking of this, he smiled again, but then he was also stunned.

- It's as if I've really experienced it.

Li Bochen sighed lowly, and found that the closer he was to the village where he had lived with his mother for nine years, the more real the memories in his mind became. When he was in the city of Infinite Measure, although he remembered everything, he always felt that he was a bystander. I know what he has been through before and what he thinks, but it's like watching a play.

But these days, from time to time, I feel that those are all experienced by myself, and I feel the same way. Maybe it was because of the proximity to his former home, he thought—that perhaps some of the consciousness that remained in his body had influenced him more deeply because of some inseparable family affection.

He felt a little ashamed when he thought of this. I remember that before he was transferred to the Infinite Army, he would return to his hometown every year to worship his mother. But now I haven't been able to come back for six years, and the grave is probably covered with weeds. In fact, I didn't come here at first to sweep the tomb and pay respects, but to trace my life experience.

When he was in Infinite City, he felt that that that innate divine power was just "innate divine power", and his physique was better than ordinary people. But after experiencing the battle with Xu Cheng, I realized that things may not be so simple.

The Wind and Snow Sword God wanted to borrow his body to go to his True Monarch's realm to "take a look", but he was so shocked that he retreated in a hurry - he originally thought that his "True Monarch" was himself, but now that he looks, things don't seem to be like this.

Could it be that there really is a powerful secret spirit attached to the original one?

Over the past month, he'd tried all sorts of things to get in touch with the Secret Spirit that might exist, but to no avail. So I realized that I had to dig from the beginning, and I had to figure out my own things first, so that I wouldn't be like a fly without a head.

At this moment the horse stopped by a small stream. The stream was murmuring, and only a small patch of crispy spring ice remained on the bank. Li Bochen remembers the stream – down the stream, you will go to the village, and up the hill, known to the locals as the "five dragons' backs", and his mother's grave is halfway up the mountain.

He thought for a moment, pulled the reins, and walked up.

After about half an hour, he led his horse up the hill, following the route he remembered through a grove of trees that still had dead leaves but sprouts, and saw the grave in the distance.

I thought that the grave should be covered with wild grass, but now it looks like it is only covered with soil, and it looks like someone has taken care of it. He was stunned, thinking that maybe the villagers had done this when they went to the grave, after all, his mother had a good relationship with the neighbors when she was alive.

So he tied the horse to a tree, took a small jar of wine and some incense and candles from the package that the horse carried, and carried it to the grave.

He put them down and looked at the tombstone first. It is inscribed: The tomb of the loving mother Chang Tingwei.

It feels weird, both familiar and strange. He sighed lowly, took out the fire fold, inserted incense and candles into the soil, dug a shallow pit in front of the tomb, and began to burn paper money slowly.

After burning for a while, Li Bochen said in a low voice: "Mrs. Chang, I may not be able to come to see you again in the future." I'm going to go to Li in a few days, and I don't know if I'll be able to come back. ”

After thinking about it, he said, "I can also be regarded as your half son...... If you know what to do, you can use these incense candles and paper money. Alas...... I don't know if you're going to blame me, but I didn't expect this to happen. I also have a mother, but not here, and if I have the opportunity in the future, I will definitely come again. ”

Speaking of this, I felt that my nose was sour, so I wiped my eyes. It's been a long time since I've been "homesick", but now I'm smoked by the incense, and I feel a little uncomfortable.

After burning the rest of the paper money, he lifted the hem, knelt down and kowtowed nine times, stood up and patted the mud seal on the wine jar, and slowly sprinkled the wine in front of the grave.

In my memory, Chang Tingwei likes to drink, which is really a strange hobby for women in this world. But she fled from the State of Li to the State of Sui alone, and there must be many sour and unspeakable things in her heart, and it is not strange to use wine to drown her sorrows.

After pouring the wine, Li Bochen sat down by the grave with the wine jar, and began to think about what he had thought about countless times these days - why did Chang Tingwei flee to the Sui Kingdom?

He did speculate about her identity.

Chang Tingwei was born extremely beautiful. As a child, it is difficult to evaluate how the mother looks. The impression of beauty or ugliness will be slowly diluted over the years, and in the end only a rather subjective and vague evaluation remains.

But from Li Bochen's current point of view, he can draw a more objective conclusion like a bystander - her beauty is slightly better than Tao Chunxi, and she is comparable to Li Qiuhu.

And his hands are white and delicate, and he doesn't know how to do farm work. In the nine years I lived in this village, I didn't make a living, and all I used was my savings.

One of the more impressive memories is that when he was seven years old, during the Chinese New Year, Li Bochen clamored to eat the lion candy she had mentioned. Ben was just arguing casually, but who expected her to cry that day. Li Bochen was startled, but in the afternoon, she found a car and took him to the town. As a result, there was no lion candy to sell in the town, so I found a car again and went to the city.

He remembered that year they had spent nine days in the city and had eaten all the food. At that time, Li Bochen only felt new and happy about this matter, but now Li Bochen thinks back and finds many details.

When she eats, she is also hungry like a child. Although he was already ill at that time, his interest was very high. Living in a luxurious inn in the city, it costs a lot of money for one night, and the nine days spend about three silver collars - enough for a family of three in this village to live for a year.

But even so, she didn't seem to be satisfied, and complained a lot about the inn. When I returned home, I was stunned for a long time, and for the whole year afterward, I was still thinking about the things that would happen. Sometimes I can't help but say things like "how did my mother used to be".

Judging from these details, she should have been from an excellent background, and she may have been a rich man and a woman from an official family when she was in Li Guo. So if you fled to the Sui Kingdom, will you have to do it because of the sudden changes in your family?

If this is the case, then it should have suffered the disaster of annihilation, otherwise it is just a family in the middle of the road, and you can go to the relatives and friends of Li Guo, why go to a place where the living habits are completely different from the old country? and still live in seclusion in a mountain village instead of a town.

But Li Bochen searched for his memories and found something that didn't make sense. Chang Tingwei once happened to mention an incident on the way south, saying that in a town on the border of Li State, he had eaten something called "leaf cake". Red beans are used as the filling, glutinous rice is used as the skin, and the outside is steamed with perilla, which is said to be a specialty there. He also said that when he ate it, he drank a kind of sake called "kateshizo".

If you came to the Sui Kingdom because you were destroyed and chased and killed by the enemy all the way, how could you have the leisure to drink?

It was not because of the destruction of the Li State - the time when she came to the Sui State was three years before the Son of Heaven raised an army to attack Li.

Is it because of his father, her husband?

Although Li Guo is the most enlightened among the six countries, it is also possible that the young lady of the wealthy official eunuch family will be expelled from the house because of personal affairs. But from the time he could remember, until he was nine years old, Chang Tingwei never mentioned his father—there was no nostalgia or anything like that, and there was no complaint, as if the man didn't exist.

In this way, Li Bochen can be sure that it should not be as simple as eloping or being expelled from the house, and the key point of the mystery of his life experience should be on that man.

But what he thinks, he can't figure out the logic. The choices Chang Tingwei made and the things he did afterwards were too abnormal and weird.

In fact, he had thought about these things many times over and over these days, and knew that it was impossible to get any results based on the memories in his mind alone. He had to dig up something new.

So he put down the wine jar and stood up, intending to go to the village and inquire again. But as soon as he had taken two steps, he suddenly stopped, thought for a moment, walked to the grave, stretched out his hand and touched the soil.

The soil is soft and has grass stalks in it. Did you shovel the grass in the vicinity and cover the ground with a layer of grass?

You shouldn't do that. If you really want to take care of this tomb, you should pull out the grass. If you do this, I'm afraid that the spring grass will grow more. His heart suddenly jumped, he thought about it, and said in a low voice: "Mrs. Chang, forgive your sins." ”

Then he rolled up his sleeves and thrust his arm into it so hard that it was about half of his arm. He then noticed that the soil in the mound was also soft, and he scratched at the soil and pulled it out—there were some grass stalks in the soil half an arm's deep.

And it's not rotten, and some of it is still a little dry.

Li Bochen took a deep breath and realized that this could only mean one thing - this grave had been dug up, and it was only recently.

He stood in front of the grave for a while, then put his hands on the earth that had been brought out, and gasped a few more times, barely calming himself.

It won't be a tomb robbery. Half a year before Chang Tingwei died, the money ran out. When she came to the Sui Kingdom, she did have a lot of money, but she didn't know how to save it, and when she got seriously ill and finally entered the ground, it was still money collected by some people in the village. Besides, if the people in the village wanted to rob the tomb, they would have done so a long time ago, and if it was an outsider, there was absolutely no reason to rob this inconspicuous mound of mounds.

Someone must be tracking their own origins.

He thought of both—the official of the Sui State and the Kong Ming Society. On the way here, I saw a wanted notice in some prefectures and larger towns, with a portrait attached to it. There are about five or six points, but it is difficult to match the number. However, the official should not do such a thing - not that it cannot be done, but it is unlikely that there is a need to delve into their own background. It doesn't help to catch yourself.

It's more likely to be someone from the Kongming Society. Xu Cheng is the head of the Zhangcheng Conference and is the spirit master, so the identity of this layer should be clear. And he killed a spirit master...... It would be confusing. Those people should not only want to catch themselves, but also want to figure out why they were able to kill Xu Cheng.

If that's the case...... Li Bochen didn't know what punishment Sui Lu punished for digging people's graves, but in his case, it should be a capital crime.

He was silent for a while, and then said in a low voice: "Mrs. Chang, I will definitely give you an explanation for this matter." ”

Then he turned and untied his horse, and walked slowly down the mountain.

I still have to go to the village and ask. If it was done by someone in the Kongming Society, they should have asked. He wasn't worried about being recognized—there shouldn't be any wanted notices or anything like that in a small place like this. I'm not very worried about an ambush there...... If there is, it would be the best.

An hour later, he saw an old locust tree in the distance. The tree seems to be covered with a layer of green smoke, and it should be full of new green. Li Bochen remembered that when he returned to his hometown seven years ago to worship, the tree was about to die, but he didn't expect that now the dead wood is spring.

It should have been a pleasing thing, but now he was angry in his heart, and he could not rejoice. There must have been a low stone wall behind the old locust tree, and beyond the stone wall was the village, and he clamped the horse's belly and told the horse to run faster.

After a while, I reached the bottom of the tree, and faintly heard the sound of blowing. He was stunned, could it be that someone in the village had died?

However, if you listen closely, it seems that there is not one, but at least three. He had a bad premonition in his heart—it was very common for this old man in the world to die during the winter. Even if three families are holding funerals in one winter, it is not unusual.

The problem is, it's too much of a coincidence. Chang Tingwei's grave was dug up a few days ago, and three families in the village died at the same time a few days ago?

He dismounted, led the horse a few steps forward, and then stood still.

I was going to go to the village and ask to make sure there was nothing missing. But now that this kind of thing is happening, it's better not to show your face in the daytime. Not worried about themselves, but worried that if the gravediggers still had eyeliner, it would bring even greater disaster to the small village.

So he turned and led his horse down the road, and after a little more went to the two great pear trees, tied the horse, and found a stone for himself to sit down. His murderous intent had risen, but now he was slowly calming down. Emperor Beichen really doesn't seem to plan to let himself live a peaceful life, so good. In the past month, he has taken the lives of six more people, two of whom were robbers and rappers, and four were bandits who robbed homes and houses and did not spare the old and the young.

It can't be regarded as doing the right thing for heaven, but if there is no clear and clear world in this world, it is not undesirable to kill to stop killing.