After some greetings, everyone went to Bai Anyi's mansion. Chu Chou said goodbye first and went to find Zhao Zhishui.

Along the way, I heard the constant singing on the roadside.

"When the peach and plum blossoms bloom in the spring breeze, and when the leaves fall in the autumn rain...... The upper and lower yellow springs are gone, and the two places are gone...... The days are long and the days are endless, and this hatred lasts forever......"

Because of Mr. Bai Anyi, everyone in Lotte Town can sing "Long Hate Song", and even three-year-old children can hum a few words.

Zhao Zhishui is sitting next to a well in the middle of the town, in front of him is the storyteller, telling stories under a big locust tree, because of the geographical location, there are many outsiders who come and go, so there are quite a few listeners.

"Tell me about Mr. Drunkard...... When he was less than a year old, he could not speak, but he could recognize the words 'zhi' and 'nothing'. ”

"When he was two years old, Mr. Drunkard's grandfather, Mr. Qu Zhong, drove to the west, and Mr. Qu Zhong was also a man of literary talent! ”

"At the age of three, Mr. Drunkard began to read and write, and by the age of five he was able to compose poetry. ”

The storyteller shook his head and kept fanning his fan, with an exaggerated look that he seemed to have experienced in person, and Zhao Zhishui kept snickering.

"Zhishui, what are you laughing at?" Chu Chou walked over and saw Zhao Zhishui laughing, so he asked.

Zhao Zhishui turned his head and saw that it was the master, so he covered his mouth and replied with a smile: "Hahaha...... Master, look at that storyteller, he looks so funny. ”

"Otherwise, how can you attract people to come to see it? If it's a serious storyteller, you won't listen to it all the time here, right?" Chu Chou touched Zhao Zhishui's head and said with a smile.

"Master, I'm all grown up! and touch my head!" Zhao Zhishui pouted and dissatisfied.

"Well, when you can be half the age of Master, I won't touch your head. "Chu Chou spread his hands and said 'I'm also helpless'.

Chu Chou walked next to Zhao Zhishui, sat down, and listened to the middle-aged man who was telling stories loudly in the distance.

"When he was twenty-nine years old, Mr. Drunkard met Mr. Weizhi, the previous prime minister of the empire, and because they were close in age and had the same talents, the two became confidants of each other. Sadly, Mr. Micro has been gone for many years. ”

"When he was thirty-four years old, Mr. Drunkard played with his friends, and during the banquet, he talked about the tragedy of Emperor Tang Ming and the noble concubine, so he ordered the pen and ink to serve, and it was completed in one go, and the famous "Song of Long Hatred" became famous all over the world!"

"At the age of thirty-six, Mr. Drunkard Ren Zuo picked up the remains, and married his friend's sister Yang, and the two were harmonious. However, God was jealous of the talent, and gave birth to four daughters and one son, only one daughter grew up. This is the pain of the gentleman, and it is also the pain of us!" the storyteller beat his chest as if his loved one had died, causing the listeners around him to laugh.

Later, Mr. Drunken Man was demoted to Jiangzhou, met a pipa girl, and heard the sound of pipa as a "Pipa Xing" that has been passed down through the ages. It was not until the year when he was close to knowing the destiny of heaven that he was able to return to the dynasty. At this time, Mr. Drunkard is no longer as upright and honest as he was when he was young, and does not know how to advance and retreat, but has become aware of advances and retreats, and knows how to weigh the pros and cons. ”

"Later, he was appointed as a waiter in the Criminal Department and a scholar in the Criminal Department, and then returned to his hometown. Of the six people who were bachelors of Hanlin together, only Mr. Drunkard failed to achieve the position of prime minister, and the other five were all prime ministers. Mr. Drunkard has been through eight imperial emperors so far......"

At the end of the storyteller's speech, his voice was no longer so high-pitched, but just spoke as if he usually spoke.

"This son, our head of the family is invited. A middle-aged man with a six-grade cultivation walked towards Chu Chou and said respectfully. Because the head of the family said that this person is his New Year's friend.

Chu Chou and Zhao Zhishui entered the White Mansion under the leadership of the middle-aged man. Before, those sons and daughters were passing by here to visit, so they didn't stay for a long time, and left after some conversation and condolences.

Baifu is very large, there are many pavilions, there is a rockery in the house, a small pond, and even in the middle of Baifu, there is a small lake, called 'Wangchao Lake', there are hundreds of koi in the lake. I heard that the emperor of the empire had come to Baifu several times and fished in Wangchao Lake.

An old man was painting on the first floor of the library pavilion, Zhao Zhishui didn't want to follow, so he went to the rockery alone to play, and the six-grade middle-aged man sent Chu Chou to the library pavilion, and then left, I don't know if he really left or hid nearby.

Chu Chou saw that the old man was painting, so he didn't bother him silently, just watched quietly.

The old man was drawing a man, a woman, with a very focused expression.

There were several bookshelves behind the old man, and at the back of the bookshelves, Chu Chou saw a poem with vigorous handwriting hanging on the wall.

"When people say that the world is over, I am a person who is in the world. ”

"Whew!" the old man is finally old, after finishing painting, he is already sweating profusely, after taking a long breath, he sees that Chu Chou has come, and it seems that he has been waiting for a while, and there is some apology in his eyes.

Chu Chou smiled and signaled that it was okay.

He looked at the painting and seemed to understand the real reason why the two of them loved each other.

"This painting is my childhood sweetheart...... Mr. Drunken Man looked sad and told Chu Chou about the past that almost no outsiders knew.

When he was a teenager, he played with the little girl next door who was four years younger than him every day, one was a graceful young man in white, and the other was a slim young girl who was shy of the moon, which can be described as a childhood sweetheart made in heaven.

However, due to the door, the two did not come together in the end.

After Bai Anyi entered high school for the first time, he returned to his hometown without being officially conferred, relived the old relationship with his childhood sweetheart who had been separated for a long time, and officially told his mother about it a few days after returning home.

But his mother rejected the mismatch, thinking that the woman's threshold was too low.

Four years later, Bai Anyi, who had already made a name for himself in Chang'an City at that time, took advantage of the fact that he could move his family to Chang'an City, so he asked his mother again to make this matter, even if his status in Chang'an City was not low at that time, but he still had to listen to his mother's words, and his mother refused this matter again. Since then, childhood sweethearts have completely diverged from each other.

Later, even if he married a wife and had children, he still couldn't let go of that woman. But he never spoke of the past again, not to mention the man.

Later, when he knew his fate, he accidentally met the childhood sweetheart of the year in the degraded place. It's just that the two of them are speechless to each other, they are both people with gray temples, and they are both married people, what else can they say?

It was only after the two separated that someone told Bai Anyi that the woman was alone and widowed, and she had never married at all in her life.

Bai Anyi asked people to look for the woman at that time, but they couldn't find it again. Even if it does, what can it do?

This period of nearly 40 years of fruitless love has been completely buried in the wind and rain of the world.

The old man looked back on this matter, and Chu Chou listened carefully, and listened to it in a daze.

As far as he is concerned, the same is true, even if he really found the white lilac-like woman before he lived in seclusion, what about it? At that time, it had been decades since he saw her for the last time, and even if he did, she would probably be full of children and grandchildren, right? Could it be difficult for him to go to her again and say, "I like you?"

"Old man, the people of the past, the things that have passed, can't be returned to the same after all. Let's let you and me drink and forget about the past for a while. Chu Chou took the initiative to mention drinking, because he was also a little sad at this time.

Green ant new brew wine, can you drink a glass of no?

Because the old man's body was old and he couldn't drink indulgently, both of them drank slowly. After a wordless discussion, it was getting late.

The old man arranged for Chu Chou and Zhao Zhishui to live in the "Moon Garden" with the best viewing location in Baifu.

Chu Chou took Zhao Zhishui and looked at the bright moon like a white jade plate in the sky on the roof of the "Moon Tower" in the Moon Garden.

"It's really nice to see the moon here!" Zhao Zhishui lay on the recliner and couldn't help but sigh when she looked at the moon in the sky.

"In the middle of the night, the remnants of the lamp rat went up. The wind moves the bamboo in the upper window, and the moon is shining. The dream soul remembers the Shuixi Pavilion. Lang Yubi, the shadow of the flower makes the dragonfly.

Thousands of miles of twilight clouds are flat, the south building urges candles, and it is sunny in the evening. The wine is scattered and slanted westward. The sky is like water, and the fans are fluttering. ”

Chu Chou sang casually, only the pale yellow moon in his eyes, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

"Master, did you say that this bright moon was like this a hundred years ago and a thousand years ago?"

"Yes, I don't know who first saw the moon, and when the bright moon first shone on people. ”

"And what about a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now?"

"It's the same way, I don't know where I start, I don't know where I live. Millennium. ”

In another room in the White Mansion, an old man carefully opened a huge sandalwood cabinet, and there was only a very small embroidered shoe in the entire precious cabinet. It's already a little faded, as if it's been washed by time.

After the old man carefully took it out, his eyes were gentle, and he stroked it gently, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned. This is the love token given to him by the fair girl who was a childhood sweetheart.

"I know you left the country to avoid me. You don't have to! If you don't leave, even if I disobey my mother's order once, what will happen if I will be looked down upon by the world?"

"I know it's too late, too late, and too out of place to say it now. But I still want to talk about it...... You will always be the best one in my heart. It's always the shy girl next door. Always so young and so beautiful. will always be a beautiful woman with a gentle personality. ”

"Jiangnan is good, and the scenery is old. Wan Ting fifteen wins the heavenly immortals, and Chang'e is a dry land lotus in the daytime. Can you remember Jiangnan?"

The old man had no tears, probably gone. The old man didn't sing, maybe his voice was hoarse and he couldn't sing anymore.

But the old man's eyes when he whispered were still the same, warm as jade.

The night is like water, covering everything in the world, as if it is about to suffocate to death.

Zhao Zhishui couldn't stay up and went downstairs to sleep, while Chu Chou stood alone in the tall building, facing the cold of the late autumn night wind, looking at the moon alone.

People in the world say that "the bright moon and high-rise buildings rest alone", why? Because after "wine enters the bowels", it is easy to "turn into lovesick tears".

And Chu Chou was silent all night, just standing alone, knowing that it would be dawn the next day.

At dawn, Zhao Zhishui got up to practice swords, and now he is already at the peak of the four grades. Chu Chou estimated that after a while, he would be able to enter the realm of the five grades.

After practicing the sword, after some freshening, I went to the big garden that the old man said last night for breakfast.

The old man didn't have the habit of snoozing, and when Chu Chou and the others arrived here, the old man had already arrived here early and waited.

In Baifu, there are actually not many people. Although there is only one old man in the family, there are hundreds of slaves, maidservants, and servants.

Many maidservants entered the big room with a delicious breakfast, placed it on the sandalwood dining table, and then gave a blessing and then withdrew.

Glass clock, amber thick, small groove wine dripping pearl red.

The old man poured a lot of wine for Chu Chou, and said that his body did not support drinking in the morning, so he had to replace the wine with tea.

The two clinked glasses, and everything was silent.

"Young Master Chu, have you really decided to leave today?" the old man asked with some reluctance.

"Yes, we need to reach Chang'an City before the depths of winter. Chu Chou nodded and replied.

"Okay. Then you take this. Although I am no longer in Chang'an City, this jade pendant still has some effect. The old man took off the warm jade pendant made of high-grade jade engraved with "drunkard" on his waist and handed it to Chu Chou.

Chu Chou didn't push or pretend, nodded and thanked him after that, and continued to eat the vegetables.

Zhao Zhishui was even more attracted by this gorgeous breakfast, and kept bowing her head and gobbling it up.

"Go to the capital now and try not to mess with those people from the military department. I heard the descendants of those protégés and former officials yesterday say that during this period of time, there has been a great movement of soldiers and horses in the world, and the emperor has handed over many resources to the military department. The current military department is not the same, and it has faintly become the head of the six departments, even the high-flying officials of the ministry have been cautious and low-key recently. Don't dare to provoke the military department. The old man who was the secretary of the criminal department reminded.

"This Eastern Antarctic Empire is very ambitious. Chu Chou thought of the frequent mobilization of soldiers and horses he had seen during this period of time, and thought of the cavalry battalion of one of the twelve avant-garde battalions of the empire that he had saved from the Demon Ancestor's predecessors before, and he had some speculations in his heart.

"Definitely. When I was in charge of the Criminal Department, I assisted the Ministry of War in purging many Jianghu sects, and also recruited many Jianghu sects to integrate into the army. Among them, there are many masters of the rivers and lakes with five, six or even seven grades. The old man took a sip of tea and said without any scruples.

It is not easy to talk about it in a shallow way.

"As long as you don't break certain rules. Otherwise, there will be a price......" The old man smiled and said casually, "Forget it, don't talk about these things that have nothing to do with you, and seek your job in his position, I am now a bad old man! ”

"Yes. There is a breeze and dust in the world, and it is good to have a clear wind. ”

"Those who know me, Brother Chu also!"

After a very relaxed breakfast, Chu Chou took Zhao Zhishui to say goodbye, and the old man sent him to the gate of Baifu Mansion, which caused the side eyes of many people passing by in the town. Because the old man usually doesn't show up, and ordinary people can't enter Baifu, many locals are very excited to see the old man.

Chu Chou turned his back to the old man, waved his hand, turned his back to the morning light, and took the girl and walked away.

The old man looked at Chu Chou's back, remembering the spring breeze when he was young, and then he thought of her again.

Then he looked down at his thin and elderly hands, and asked himself: "The spring sun is warm, and the spring breeze is the same." The years are good, and the time is quiet. You're gone, how dare I not grow old?"