The fire was extinguished, the smoke had died down, and Fort Ansi quietly disappeared into the fireworks.

The cars on the south side of the official road were noisy, the horses' hooves were obtained, and the convoy of the beautiful bearded man's family arrived.

Three carts, pulled by six horses. The car is from Lanzhou, the car is small and the wheels are big, far away, it seems that only the wheels are missing. On this road, the wheels are not big and it is really difficult to walk, and the vehicles of the Central Plains are useless here.

In front of the convoy were two young knights opening the way, the yellow horses under the crotch were incomparably majestic, and the teenagers were swords and swords, majestic.

Passing through the ruins of Anthy Fort, everyone looked up and down the remaining fort walls with disbelief.

The bow was wound and the sword was unsheathed, and everyone was on guard against any danger that might arise.

Surprisingly peaceful, the convoy passed safely through the most uneven section of the road and slowly headed west.

Zhao Ping'an and the three of them quietly hid on the Maniu Mountain on the left side of the road, watching the convoy go away safely, looking at each other, and couldn't help but smile.

Although the Purple Mansion Sanxian was still slightly pale, he was in good spirits and said with a smile: "Isn't Lord Jin really going to show up to meet Ling Mei?"

The thunder demon smiled indifferently, shook his head and said, "It's hard to see each other, and it's hard to say goodbye." It's better not to see. ”

Zhao Ping'an laughed and said: "Brother Jin's words are very zen. ”

The thunder demon said: "Now that everything is over, it is time for Jin to say goodbye to the two." ”

Zhao Ping'an said: "Zhao also wants to send Brother Tian's ashes back to Tianmu Mountain for burial. ”

With the Zifu Sanxian and the Thunder Demon exchanging respects, Zhao Ping'an walked proudly without hesitation, embarking on the journey he wanted to go, raising his head and holding his chest firm, and moving forward fearlessly.

The state capital, that is the barren and poor place in the mountainous area, the mountains and mountains stretch for thousands of miles, the primeval forest has no human traces for thousands of years, except for the inhabited valleys in various places, there is no one to see in the mountains for hundreds of miles, all are rare and exotic beasts, tigers, leopards, bears and apes enter the village during the day to hurt people. In the depths of the mountains, there are Miao barbarians from time to time, and the Han people dare not go deeper.

There are 10 counties under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, with a total population of less than 200,000 people, distributed in a vast land of 490 miles from east to west and 450 miles from north to south. There are two official roads in the whole province. Only through the horse but not through traffic, the north-south official road to the north to Jinhuafu, south to Fujian. The east-west official road starts from Fucheng and reaches Wenzhou Fuhaikou in the east, and other counties are trails, and there are few pedestrians on the road. Some villages are built across the mountains, and they can be seen from village to village, but it takes a day and a half to reach them when they walk.

However, the city is still quite prosperous, and the local products are quite abundant, such as cotton, silk, coarse cloth, and hemp; arrowroot, paper, lead, tea, and fern powder from Jinyun County; iron, silver, mushrooms, and celadon from Longquan County; animal skins and medicinal materials from Jingning County; book stones from Qingtian County; and precious stone chess pieces and lacquer with mythological colors in Suichang County...... A large number of goods were transported to Jinhua and Hangzhou in exchange for the necessities of life, so there were a lot of local product shops in Fucheng, and the people who operated them were all local wealthy and powerful people.

At the same time, the mountains are high and dense, and the government whip is beyond the reach, so it has become a fleeing cave for the bandits. The local bandits in the state are quite prestigious in Zhejiang, the government is the most headache, there are often hundreds of people who gather together, occupy the mountains for the robbers of the house, the officers and soldiers enter and suppress them and flee to the deep mountains, the officers and soldiers are tired of running for their lives and the division works in vain, the soldiers come and thieves go, the soldiers go to the thieves, and play hide and seek with each other. Therefore, the folk customs here are quite strong, and they believe in ghosts and witches, even the scholar class, they are also superstitious about ghosts and gods, and the closure of the folk customs can be imagined.

The official road to the south goes up along Daxi, reaches Yunhe and follows Xiaomei Creek and then up, and enters Songxi County in Fujian from Qingyuan County. There are fewer people on this road, and you don't see a single traveler for most of the day.

There are nine miles around the city of Fucheng, there are six city gates, and Lishui County is attached to the south of the city. Outside the city, there are two sides of water in the southeast and south, with the big stream in the south and the good stream in the east. It meets southeast of the city and flows into the sea. There are ten hills in the city. The highest is Vientiane Mountain in the southwest. Therefore, the streets in the city, except for the street in front of the government is still relatively flat, the other streets and alleys are winding, the streets are narrow, people walk in them, some streets and alleys can only cross the shoulder, but no one denies that this is a quaint and quiet city.

At dusk on Chinese New Year's Eve, Xin Wenzhao entered the Daxi Gate with a large package on his back, and played at the Lishui Inn not far from the county in the foothills of Shandong.

In the past few months, his footprints have all haunted the remote areas of poor mountains and bad waters, while evading the pursuit of Luo Tian, while practicing the internal skills and footwork taught to him by Zhao Ping'an, and his entry into the country is quite amazing. It's just that I haven't fought with anyone, and I don't know how far my cultivation has reached.

Seeing that it is about to close in the near future, man is a social animal after all, and he is no exception. Determined to enter the more prosperous city for the New Year, and sweep away the fatigue and dust around him.

The Lishui Inn is pitifully small, with only five upper rooms and three general shops, with a small façade and narrow and low houses. In the middle of winter, the sky is cloudy, the wind is cold, the water tank has begun to freeze, and all the rooms are not set up braziers, if the guests need to bake the fire, please go to the hall, to make another fire, you can ask the shop to prepare a charcoal basin, the charge is extra.

Xin Wenzhao lives in Datongpu, so he first asked a guy for a basin of hot water to wash, settle his bags, and go out of the hall to buy food to satisfy his hunger. The hall is not big, it is almost dark and there is no light, because there are not many guests tonight, the small hall has six seats, and only three seats have guests.

The shopkeeper brought a pot of hot tea to warm up first. To eat rice in the south, he asked for two dishes and one soup, and when he came to a pot of rice, he buried his head and munched on it. A large pot of plates has been eaten half, full of warmth and hunger, the body began to warm, at the same time the lamp has been lit, there are a total of six vegetable oil lamps in the four corners of the hall, each lamp is about only three or four wicks, so only the dim light, can only see the face clearly, everything seems cold, this is the characteristic of the small inn. He began to look at the people in the hall, secretly watching.

At a table next to the wall sat a gray-haired old man, wearing a shabby old cotton jacket, his face was pale, his old eyes were dizzy, staring blankly at a plate of pickles on the table, slowly picking up the rice grains in the bowl, he seemed to have no appetite, he was old and weak, and the situation of the wind and candle was hopeful.

On the other side of the table, a big man in a new cotton jacket sat on a stool with his elbows crossed, crossed his legs, and watched the old man eat with interest.

Xin Wenzhao felt very strange, seeing that the expressions of the two of them were neither like companions nor like masters and servants, what was going on?

The big man seemed to be waiting impatiently, put down Erlang's leg and said impatiently: "Old guy, what's wrong with you? I haven't eaten half a bowl of rice for a long time, are you deliberately procrastinating?"

The old man glanced at each other with faint old eyes, still eating slowly, ignoring them.

The big man was furious, snatched the old man's rice bowl, and shouted: "If you don't want to eat, don't eat, hurry, the master is waiting for you, go!"

The muscles of the old man's face twitched, and he put down his chopsticks and said weakly: "Your master has nothing to do with me, and the old man is not under your instructions." ”

"Will you go?" asked the big man fiercely.

"The old man is not leaving, and you can't go wild in Fucheng. The old man raised his voice and said, his pale old face was slightly bloody because of excitement, and he stood up and said, "Go back and tell Fifth Master Yu that the Zhang family is a poor family and dare not climb high." Although Zhang Gongzi was killed by you, there are still people in the Longquan Hu family. ”

On the contrary, the fierce flames of the big man disappeared, and said with a smile: "Old killer, why are you so hard? Pick up the Longquan Hu family to bluff people, bluff the people of the Yu family? Do you think the children of the Hu family dare to go against the people of the Yu family? Don't dream of Qingqiu." If you open your old eyes and see, the tomb of the Jinyun County Uncle outside the city is about to become a deserted grave! The children of the Longquan Hu family have no interest, and the Jinyun County Uncle has no direct blood relatives left; the dead ghost cannot protect an old slave of the Zhang family, so why bother to come forward to be the master of the Zhang family? If it weren't for the fact that the master of the family saw that you were old and mediocre and unwilling to care, I am afraid that your old bones would have been fed to the wild dogs a long time ago. ”

The old man pushed the stool off the table and ignored it.

The big man rolled his eyes, reached out and grabbed the old man's shoulder and sneered: "Don't go back to the room, follow me." ”

"Let it go, you wicked slave who dares to commit murder in the shop?" the old man shouted with anger.

The diners at the three tables did not dare to meddle with their heads, the two shopkeepers pretended not to see it, the shopkeeper deliberately dozed on the counter, and the two servants simply slipped away.

The big man dragged the old man out of the store, and said with a strange smile: "The old man is not dead, it's not easy for you to drink punishment wine?" ”

Xin Wenzhao put down his job suddenly, and pushed the chair up, in his heart, he repeatedly warned himself not to meddle in his affairs, he had enough troubles, and meddling would definitely cause fire. However, he couldn't suppress his urge to meddle in his own affairs, and he had to stand up when he saw injustice, and he was not afraid of any consequences, after all, he was young and vigorous, and he stood up if he didn't like it, forgetting his situation.

"Little San, don't be rude. There was a deafening cry outside the door.

Hearing this, the big man let go, retreated to the side and bowed to the person who came in outside the door and said with a smile: "The eldest young master came just in time, this old man is not dead and refuses to leave, the old man is waiting for a response, so ......"

"Don't worry about it, get out!" The old man asked you to invite the fourth uncle, but he didn't tell you to be strong, be careful that I whip you with a leather whip, see if you still dare to be presumptuous?"

Xiao San chattered repeatedly, smiling and accompanying aside, and did not get out.

Xin Wenzhao looked at it coldly, and said in his heart: "This is called both soft and hard, the old man is like a little beast that has fallen into a trap, how can I ignore this matter?" He sat down again and buried his head in eating.

The eldest young master had a wicked smile on his face, helped the old man sit down, and said with a smile: "The fourth uncle is frightened, and the little nephew is deeply sorry." To be honest, my father would love to talk to the fourth uncle......"

"Young Master Yu, the old slave and Ling Zun have nothing to talk about. The young host has ......"

"Fourth uncle, An Guodi's death ......"

"You dare to say you didn't kill you?"

"This is really a great injustice, how can the fourth uncle say such a thing? Human life is at stake, and it is not fun. Brother An Guodi stumbled and jumped into the good stream and drowned, my brother did not leave the city at all, none of the people in the cold house had ever been to Guixian, Brother An Guodi's death was an accident, how can you blame us......?

The fourth uncle's face was pale, and he said indignantly: "Emperor Mo Dao has no retribution, and there are gods three feet above his head. You can cover the sky with one hand, lose your conscience and do evil, and one day you will not be able to escape the condemnation of the ghosts and gods. The old slave housekeeper for the old man all his life, when the old man died, he handed over the heavy responsibility of taking care of the young master and the young lady to the old slave, and the last words of his death were still in his ears. However, in less than a year, the old slave was incompetent, and he actually caused the young master to die at the hands of the bully and the slave, what kind of face did the old slave have to see the old man underground? ”

"Fourth uncle, please don't get me wrong, look at how ugly you speak?" said the young master with a smile.

The fourth uncle hung up two lines of tears, gritted his teeth and said: "Misunderstanding? Three months ago, your Huahua Tai Sui brother visited friends in Jinyun City, and met my young lady on the road of Yuxu Palace in Xiandu Mountain.......

"Fourth uncle, how can you talk nonsense like this? The past was completely out of misunderstanding, and the fact that the late brother and Zhang Gongzi became close friends is proof of this. To be honest, Brother Zhang Xian lost his footing and drowned, my brother was grieving, Zhang Luo about the funeral, my brother had done his best, and he was extremely tired and tired for hundreds of miles, how could the old man bear to say this kind of work? Xiao Ke knew that the fourth uncle was in a restless mood, spoke without thought, and was a little confused, so he had to recuperate. The eldest young master said with a gloomy expression, but his eyes were gloomy and treacherous.

"The old slave's mind is not clear, but too clear. The fourth uncle gritted his teeth and said. "If the eldest young master has nothing else to do, please go back. ”

"Fourth uncle, don't you see the outside? You took the young lady to Longquan for a long journey to join the family, passing through the door and not entering, doesn't it seem that my brother is ruthless and unrighteous, and does not take care of the family of his friends? Besides, the young lady went to Longquan to join the family, people are in human affection, and people are left behind in death, Zhang Lao Boxian has passed away for more than a year, and Aunt Zhang has passed away for three years, Miss went to her uncle's house this time to settle down, and the Hu family is currently withering and the family is in decline, how can she take care of her niece. Why don't you go to the humble house to take shelter, my father is very welcome, can my brother see my friend's sister displaced and sent under the fence?"

"Hmph! You say it nicely, the wolf has intentions, and he wants to reveal it. The four said with fear and hatred, and walked away.

As soon as the little three monsters rolled their eyes, they wanted to step out.

The eldest young master raised his hand and waved it, signaling the junior not to act rashly, and sighed and said: "Since the fourth uncle is so stubborn, the little nephew will never be reluctant, and he will personally come to see the young lady off tomorrow morning and say goodbye." ”

The fourth uncle had already entered the inner courtyard and walked away. The eldest young master smiled darkly, took the junior out of the store, and left.

Xin Wenzhao watched coldly and saw that there was a difference, but since the two sides were acquaintances, how could he, a foreigner, take the liberty of taking charge of things? Anyway, I'm fine, so why don't you stay and see what is going on?"