The first year of the Tang civilization

June 23

Eastern Capital, Wenluo Fang

After entering the rainy season, it will rain heavily every three or two days in Luoyang City, and then the sky will be sunny after half an hour. The same is true today, when the torrential rain mixed with mud flowed into the ditch beside the road, making the already small ditch almost overflow.

Some low-lying sections of the road began to accumulate water, and even the Tianjie in Dingdingmen became muddy. Now that it has entered Hai, the gates of each city have long been closed, except for the sound of guards patrolling the water at night and bursts of frogs, the entire Luoyang City has fallen into silence.

"Bang", there was a crisp sound from the window lattice, and the girl who was tracing under the oil lamp suddenly looked up, only to see her moth brows frowning slightly, and immediately began to be alert.

"Smack", another sound came.

The girl put down the pen and paper and walked gently to the side of the window, but her fingers were not visible outside the window. "It must be a wild cat without a home," the girl muttered, calming her hand to her chest.

She was about to turn around and go back again, "Bang! "It's like the sound of a stone hitting a window lattice and falling to the ground.

The girl was suddenly a little flustered, and she asked loudly at the window, "Who's outside?"

As if hearing the girl's question, a low male voice came from outside the window a moment later.

"Don't be afraid, it's me, Yuan Yu." The girl was shocked when she heard this, she hurriedly helped her hair bun, took her shirt from the shelf and draped it over her shoulders, and immediately pulled out the bolt of the door and opened the door.

"Brother Xuanhui, it turned out to be you!"

Leaning beside the door, there was a thin, good-looking man, his face was a little pale, he didn't even wear a turban on his head, a strand of hair still dripping down beside his face, and even his soaked blue shirt was covered with mud.

"What the hell is wrong with Brother Xuanhui? I even lost my headscarf, hurry up and come in and take off my wet clothes!"

Yuan Yu smiled awkwardly when he heard this, and then carefully stepped over the threshold, bent down and took off his soaked boots and socks. He looked around the room and smiled at the girl:

"Chang Chu, I can't help but come to visit so late without saying hello, and I stained your house. Isn't he here?"

Chang Chu didn't answer immediately, but handed him a square towel first, poured a glass of white water from the table, and let Yuan Yu sit on it.

Then she shook her head and continued to answer the man's question, "Brother, he went to Yanshi yesterday, and a spy wrote that the Hebei cargo ship ran aground in Yangqu, and he rushed by boat early in the morning, afraid that he would not be able to come back tomorrow." Brother Xuanhui, how did you do this?"

Yuan Yu took the towel and wiped his face, then picked up the teacup and poured a large mouthful of water. His expression was a little unnatural, and he said embarrassedly: "I went to Nanshi to buy some groceries this morning, but there were too many people to delay the time, and I couldn't get out of the city before sunset." Originally, I was going to find a house to stay for one night, but I didn't expect to meet a few minions on the small street of Yongtaifang, I was not a few of their opponents, and the goods and silver were robbed. In desperation, I can only come to your brothers and sisters to borrow."

Chang Chu was dumbfounded when she heard this, and she asked repeatedly: "Then are you injured?" ”

Yuan Yu patted her chest at the worried girl, smiled and comforted her, "I'm not hurt." They snatched their things and left. ”

Then he immediately got up and spun around twice, allowing the other party to take a look at him. Seeing that he didn't seem to have any external injuries, Chang Chu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's so late, the night is forbidden in Luoyang City, how did Brother Xuan Hui enter the workshop?"

Yuan Yu slowly sat back on the tree, looked at the girl and said, "It may be that there is more rain during this time, and a section of the east wall of Wenluofang has collapsed, and the trap is less than one person high. When I saw that there was no one to attend, I flipped in. Fortunately, I was not noticed by the doormen who were watching the night, otherwise it would have been more troublesome to be caught, and I am afraid that I would have to ask Renzhao to go to the prison to ransom me."

Chang Chu's expression was still a little worried, "Although I don't go out often, I have long heard my brother say that there are many businessmen in Luoyang South City, and people from all over the world are in it, which can be described as a mixture of fish and dragons." I didn't expect the robbers in the capital to be so rampant, they all sound terrifying."

Seeing that the girl was still sad, Yuan Yu immediately persuaded her to rest assured. Chang Chu went into the back room, saying that he was going to find a clean dress for Yuan Yu.

Yuan Yu was bored by himself, so he picked up the scissors and cut the lights on the case, and inadvertently saw a pile of paper stacked on the case, which was the words that Chang Chu had copied before.

Yuan Yu wiped his hands and picked up the top one, and read it to himself: "There are many trees in the atrium, but it is Mei Shi, ask you why you ......are alone."

"Brother Xuanhui, don't peek at what I write." When Chang Chu heard what he had written being read out in the room, he was immediately ashamed, and hurriedly ran out and snatched the paper from Yuan Yu's hand.

Yuan Yu was still a little ignorant, but after thinking for a while, he understood what was going on. Chang Chu is already in his prime, it is the situation of the girl Huaichun, he realized his abruptness, and immediately bowed his head to Chang Chu and apologized:

"I saw it unintentionally, if you offend Chang Chu, please don't blame it. ”

Chang Chu didn't blame him anymore, but he didn't answer his words, just put away the paper in his hand along with the words in front of the case, and put a few clean clothes in front of Yuan Yu.

"I'm just bored copying poems in my spare time, and I haven't read a book, and my handwriting is sloppy. This is my brother's clothes, Brother Xuanhui will change them first. You're going to get a chill if you wear wet clothes like this. ”

Yuan Yu thanked the girl again.

Chang Chu looked at Yuan Yu's embarrassment of thanks, and half of his anger disappeared in an instant, "The night is too late, you can stay in your brother's room for one night for the time being." ”

Yuan Yu went into the house to change into clean clothes, and asked about the brother and sister's current situation, and after the two chatted for a while, Yuan Yu returned to Chang Renzhao's room to rest.

He and Chang Chu's brother Renzhao are friends who have known each other for many years. The two brothers and sisters of the Chang family were originally from Weizhou, Hebei, because they lost their mother since they were young, they followed their father into Beijing and have been doing silk business in Luoyang North City. However, their father died of illness shortly afterward, leaving only the brother and sister in Beijing to rely on each other.

Many years ago, Yuan Yu and Chang Renzhao met for the first time in Beishi, originally because of a trivial dispute, so small that Yuan Yu couldn't remember why the dispute was after many years. As the saying goes, if you don't fight, you don't know each other, after the misunderstanding was resolved, the two young men hit it off at first sight, and gradually Yuan Yu also became the most familiar person between the brothers and sisters in Luoyang.

When I thought back to the time when I was already here, the night breeze outside the window lattice was strong, and the leaves were rustling. Yuan Yu lay on the couch tossing and turning, unable to sleep for a long time.

He seemed to be very uncomfortable, his brows furrowed tightly because of the pain, and he raised his right hand and gently rubbed his left arm, and his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat at the same time.

As if hesitating for a moment, he slowly propped himself up on the bed and re-lit the oil lamp with a fire breaker. Then he reached out and groped around his waist, and in a few moments he took something out of his shirt.

Through the faint light, it was faintly visible that he was holding a cyan porcelain vase in his hand, which was about three inches high and had a turquoise body.

The cap of the porcelain vase is a budding flower bone, the bottle body is composed of two parts, the upper and lower parts of the combination of three layers of lotus petals, the edge of each petal is inlaid with silver wire, the thinnest groove in the middle is delicately tied with a red rope, and the bottom is an inverted lotus canopy base.

It looks like a rare piece of beauty.

Yuan Yu held the porcelain bottle with his left hand, gently twisted the lid with his right hand, and then whispered to the mouth of the bottle:

"Huaihuang, are you still awake? I seem to have been tricked just now. ”

As soon as the words fell, the originally dark bottle mouth suddenly shone tactfully, and then slowly floated out a wisp of green smoke. The smoke circled around Yuan Yu a few times, and finally turned into a teenager.

The boy looked to be in his early twenties, handsome and handsome, with braided hair on his head, a wide honey-colored robe on his upper body, and a girdle on his lower body.

The ring-headed knife hanging from his waist is quite eye-catching, and this peculiar outfit is completely different from Yuan Yu.

"That thing still hurt you just now?" asked the young man who was called Huai Huang with a frown.

Yuan Yu nodded with a wry smile, then unbuttoned his shirt and pulled his arm from his sleeve, but saw that he was bruised from his left shoulder to his elbow socket.

Huai Huang gently held up his arm, squinted his eyes and looked closer, only to see that the wound was mottled and seemed to be surrounded by black gas, which looked very hideous and terrifying.

"I've never seen an injury like this." Huai Huang put down Yuan Yu's arm and thought hard, and then he looked at Yuan Yu, and there seemed to be resentment in his eyes: "If you just let me out, I will deal with that monster with you, and you may not be hurt." ”。

Yuan Yu retracted his arms into his sleeves and got dressed. said to Huai Huang again and again:

"I know you're worried about me, but I've heard that. Luoyang City, as the emperor, will be protected by the god of guarding the city, if you don't hide in the Lotus Venerable, we need to deal with more than just that monster. How could I let you take that risk. ”

Huai Huang was speechless by his words, Yuan Yu saw that Huai Huang was no longer silent, and couldn't help but think of the scene when the two met when they were young.

It turned out that this man named Huaihuang was not very human, but a spirit, or could be called a "ghost". For a long time, he had been attached to this small celadon lotus venerable, and only appeared when no one was around.

Yuan Yu's home is in Qianjin Township, Qianjin Township, north of Luoyang City, which is located on the north bank of Luoshui on the North Plain, which is a treasure made in heaven from the perspective of feng shui. Throughout the ages, both princes and nobles and commoners in cloth have been keen to use this place as a place to bury after death. Just on the Beibi Tu Mountain, which stretches for hundreds of miles, the tombs are towering and numerous.

And the celadon lotus statue with nostalgia was accidentally dug up by Yuan Yu under an old locust tree when he was a child.

Originally, he only went to dig up the cockroaches in the soil, and before the cockroaches feathered, he would leave a small hole in the ground, and only in the evening after the rain would burrow out of the soil, and then climb to a high place to molt. Children will catch the cockroaches before they molt, whether they are playing with them or roasting them, it is a childlike fun.

I still remember that day Yuan Yu saw a small hole, gently picked the edge of the hole with his hand, and saw that the small hole was getting bigger and bigger, but there were no cockroaches, only a cyan porcelain bottle was half-hidden in the soil.

Yuan Yu carefully took out the porcelain vase, he had never seen such a beautiful bottle, and the broken jars at home were very different from this little thing. But Ye Niang at home warned him more than once not to pick up the bottles and cans in the field, let alone take them home.

People at the foot of the mountain know that if these terracotta figurines and porcelain vases are found in the fields, they will be smashed on the spot because of bad luck. Even the grave robbers who dig up graves only take gold and bronze treasures, and do not take these artifacts with them.

That night, Yuan Yu sneaked into the cowshed while the family was asleep, and he opened the cap of the bottle to see if there was any of the legendary elixir inside. What he couldn't understand was how this palm-high porcelain vase suddenly drilled out a big "living person".

Hu Lu Huaihuang never expected that he would see the light of day after a hundred years, thanks to the frightened child in front of him.

"What's your name?" asked Huai Huang curiously, crouching down to look at the boy hiding in the corner.

"My surname is Yuan...... Aya and her mother both called me Yu'er......" The boy wiped his snot and tears, and his voice was still a little trembling, although the good-looking brother who floated out of the bottle did not seem to be malicious, and even talked to himself with a smile.

But this brother is dressed strangely, especially with a strange braided hair. Yuan Yu had never seen anyone dressed like this, and there was no one in the entire Qianjin Township, so he was naturally a little scared.

"Yuan Yu ......" Huai Huang was thoughtful when he heard this, he helped Yuan Yu up, he knew that he had slept for too long this night, and the outside world had already been turned upside down.

Since then, the existence of Huaihuang has become a secret between the two.

Only in the middle of the night or when no one is around, Yuan Yu will call out Huai Huang.

He pestered Huai Huang to tell him stories of the past. Huai Huang also likes to share what he knows, such as the pomegranate in the White Horse Temple weighs a few catties, and a pomegranate is worth the price of a cow, and the carp in the Luo River and the bream in the Yihe River are even more expensive. Every time he talks about this, Huai Huang can't help but feel a little sad.

In the first year of Xianheng, the imperial court ordered troops in April, it is said that it was to conquer the rebellious Fanbang in Liaodong, and Yuan Yu's father and elder brother were forcibly conscripted as government soldiers, and he was only seven years old when he escaped.

Later, his father and brother went to Hebei with the official army to fight, and the frontier rebellion has been in turmoil for decades, and the imperial court has long been gearing up. In the first few months, there were letters from the front to report the safety of my father and brother, but after the winter, the two were never heard from again.

Yuan Yu's mother was worried day and night, and in less than two years, he couldn't afford to be ill, and Huaihuang accompanied Yuan Yu, who was only ten years old, to bury his mother on the mountain.

After a few months, Fan Yang came with the good news of pacifying the frontier, the rebellious Fanbang was destroyed, and all its people moved inward, but Yuan Yu's father and brother never returned.

The children of that year are growing up day by day, but Huai Huang is still the same teenager.

"What is Xuan Hui thinking?" his thoughts were suddenly pulled back to his eyes by Huai Huang's voice, and Yuan Yu was a little dazed in an instant.

"I'm wondering how to find the whereabouts of the slingshot," Yuan said as he looked at the roof with his head on his head.

The bow he said was a slingshot made for him by his brother before leaving, and Yuan Yu has been well preserved for more than ten years. Whenever he thought of his father and brother, he would take out his slingshot and look at it.

But what puzzled him was, how could such an inconspicuous slingshot be targeted by monsters and stolen?

Hearing Yuan Yu say this, Huai Huang said instead: "The more important thing at the moment is to heal your injury, this injury is not like an ordinary doctor can heal, do you have a clue where to heal your injury?"

Yuan Yu closed his eyes and shook his head, "Not yet, let's go to Nanshi early tomorrow morning, there are many witches there, maybe there will be a way." ”