Early in the morning, today is the first day of the first lunar month. The floors of every house are covered with red dust and have not yet been cleaned. Thousands of desks in White Jade Square are also littered with cups and plates. Last night, the lights were as bright as day and the fireworks were as chaotic as rain. After celebrating the New Year, the whole city was resting. The streets Not a single person could be seen on it.
But there happened to be a man who got up early. After taking a bath, he returned to the bedroom, turned his head and glanced at the seductive sleeping beauty and the plump white cat on the bed, and then took out the golden gardenia from the sandalwood box on the table. Good clothes, changed and left quietly.
When he arrived at the appointed place, there was already a woman waiting here.
"I didn't expect you to be able to wake up this morning after drinking so much last night."
"How dare you not get up." Guiliu said softly.
After the banquet of the ministers last night, he went to the attic to look for her, thinking that there was something important, but it turned out that he was just drunk.
It wasn't until dawn that he returned to the palace to rest for a short while.
Gui Qing's voice was cold, "Have you brought anything with you?"
He nodded, "Let's go."
The sun was shining brightly in the early morning, and a man and a woman walked towards the outside of the palace. The white snow was a bit dazzling.
At the west gate of the imperial city, there was a coachman waiting for a long time. He was the young Taoist priest who mistakenly killed a Taoist monk and entered the palace to serve. Seeing His Royal Highness the Prince and His Highness the Princess coming together, he was secretly surprised at first, and then relieved.
Guiliu opened the curtain of the car for his sister, acting as a servant. Instead of being grateful, Guiqing joked: "Next time, just be a footstool."
Suddenly, the young Taoist priest suddenly raised his head, and his heart was shocked. At this moment, it was as if he had met his inner demon when he broke through decades ago!
In the carriage, Gui Qing whispered: "Come down."
A black cat jumped down from the roof of the car, rubbed open the thick windproof curtain with its little head, purred thickly in its throat, jumped to Gui Qing's side, and meowed a few times.
Guiqing stretched out her jade fingers to pick it up, frowned in disgust, and threw it out of the carriage.
There were many stray cats in the palace. Gui Liu had probably seen and fed them all, and even picked out the ones he liked and took them back to Qingxue Taozhi and the others to raise. However, he had never seen this black cat without any mottled colors on its body. And for some reason, he subconsciously thought of Wang Sizhi's pure white cat.
"You raised it?"
"No." Gui Qing said concisely.
The young Taoist priest on the horse tried his best to steady his mind, but still felt lingering fear. When he looked at the black cat just now, his body was shaky and almost collapsed.
Who would have thought that just after the black cat was thrown out, he jumped into the carriage again and rubbed coquettishly at Gui Qing's feet.
"It's not like the carriage can't fit a gadget like this, so take it with you." Guiliu said, bending down and reaching out his hand to bring the black cat over. As a result, the black cat immediately showed its sharp claws and threatened Guiliu. Made gestures.
"You ungrateful little beast, I helped you put in a good word, and you did this to me." Guiliu cursed, raising his foot and pretending to kick it away.
"Who said you should take it with you just now? You have to take it away now, and you can turn your face faster than turning the page in a book." Gui Qing leaned forward slightly, pinched the black cat's neck with her slender fingers, lifted it up and held it in her chest, using His chin touched its little head.
Geiliu looked like he had seen a ghost. Is this woman in front of him his sister? Where is that little girl who is not interested in anything but drinking?
Suddenly, a faint voice came from in front of the carriage, "Where is the cat that Your Highness is holding?"
Guiliu was a little puzzled, so he hummed and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's okay, your highness, just don't let it come to the front."
Guiliu was even more puzzled and asked: "Why?"
After a moment of silence, a voice came from the front, "To be honest, poor people are afraid of cats."
Upon hearing this, Geiliu joked: "I didn't expect that the owner of the Immortal Family's mansion is actually afraid of cats. Doesn't it mean that I only need to prepare a cat to fight against you? Fortunately, you are still a first-class enshrinement in the palace. This thing I have to deal with this matter with my mother, and my mother will definitely have a way to cure your problem."
The young Taoist priest replied cheerfully: "It's a problem, it needs to be changed, it needs to be changed."
But in his heart, he had already scolded the prince a hundred and eighty thousand times, and he only had to greet the eighteen generations of his ancestors. You are a newborn calf and are not afraid of tigers. Why don't you ask that kid from Qintian Prison if he is afraid of this black cat? You ask the big red robed chief of rituals and the eunuch in charge of the seal, if he is afraid? You ask the real great monks and masters in the world, which ones are not afraid of them?
Of course, there is indeed one person who knows it and is not afraid, and that is Gui Qing.
The young Taoist priest stood far outside the imperial city gate, took a deep breath, and said softly: "Your Highness, shall we set off?"
Gui Liu's mind drifted away and he hummed.
The streets of the capital were deserted, and the carriage galloped all the way out of the city. The drive after that was a bit long and bumpy.
There are charcoal basins placed at the four corners of the carriage, and the charcoal fire is burning brightly. In addition, the thick curtains are airtight, so the carriage is relatively stuffy. Gui Liu took off his fox fur and was about to open the window to get some air. Suddenly he stopped extending his hand and turned to ask Gui Qing, "Is it cold?"
The voice was still so cold and indifferent that no emotion could be heard, "You can do whatever you want."
Gui Liu suddenly noticed that the black cat in her arms was shaking a little, and Gui Qing hugged it tighter.
Only then did he realize that the charcoal at Guiqing's feet did not light up. Was it because the servant was careless or was it blown out by the wind when he got into the car? At that moment, he was a little helpless. This little girl, Leng, you must say, pretending to be arrogant and say: "Just do it if you want."
Guiliu covered her legs with the wool felt covering his legs. When he put the fox fur on her shoulders, he saw his sister's expressionless face moved slightly.
But he felt that it was really hot and stuffy inside the carriage, and coupled with the bumps and swaying along the way, he was afraid that he would faint if he stayed for a while longer. After talking to Guiqing, he opened the curtain and stepped on the railing to jump to the roof of the car. He simply found a place to lean on and sit down. The cold wind faced him, blowing away the sultry heat all over his body, and also blew away some of the haze in his heart. .
The carriage was traveling on a muddy path where the snow had melted, surrounded by mountains on both sides, with no end in sight.
This man, who was dressed in plain clothes and had white hair all over his body, sat cross-legged and hummed the tune softly. His voice was melodious, like an oriole singing softly on the peach blossoms. It was so sweet and sweet, but Inexplicably sad.
After humming, he sat cross-legged, speechless.
He has never been to Chen Luyao's home and doesn't know how far it is. He only knew that it was far, far away from the capital, and the roads were difficult to walk. It was a good place with beautiful mountains and clear waters. Every spring, there would be a huge mountain peach tree behind the house, with orioles on the flowers, and the flowers would bloom beautifully. Like blood.
He didn't know how far Chen Luyao had traveled when she ran away from home after a quarrel with her family before coming to the capital, but she must have suffered a lot when she started living alone at such a young age. In the following days, he was trained by Wu Peixian to become a killer with excellent disguise. This period must have been very difficult. When she arrived at the palace, she was always ostracized by the older palace maids because she was new. Even though she had served the Crown Prince for a while, she became the object of jealousy in their eyes.
At that time, Gui Liu owed countless sentimental debts. He didn't care about how many wealthy women and ladies there were, let alone just an ordinary palace maid?
Even though he and she met by mistake in Qionglin Garden, he never took her seriously in the years of debauchery and sordidness that followed.
But such a woman of ordinary background died early, and the disaster even implicated her parents.
That day in the long river of time, he saw with his own eyes that her soul was shattered bit by bit, and he cried so hard that he couldn't straighten up. After a long, long time, when he clearly saw the fact that she sacrificed her life to save her parents and herself, when he heard from Wu Peixian that Chen Luyao's parents were dead, when he knew that Chen Luyao's death was useless, at that moment, He only felt that it was pitch black in front of him and he couldn't see anything. He collapsed.
Qin Fang didn't know what Chen Luyao said to her parents when she came home briefly and then left home for the last time. Qin Fang didn't know, and the young Taoist priest didn't know, but he knew. The woman holding the umbrella told a big lie, saying that she had brought back a lot of soil from different places over the years to add to the peach tree behind the house, and that she would be back soon.
The daughter who had been missing for seven or eight years finally returned home once, stayed briefly and then disappeared again. The old couple could not wait for their daughter to come home for the second time until their death.
Driving along the trail into a small village, the carriage slowed down and finally stopped in front of a dilapidated mud house.
The red Spring Festival couplets on the door are from last year. They have been exposed to wind and rain and have peeled off in half.
Today, the first day of the first lunar month, a couple of New Year couplets were put on this house, and a man and woman dressed in plain clothes walked in.
Chen Luyao and her parents were all buried under the peach tree behind the house.
This spring, the mountain peaches are as bright as blood, but the human face is no longer there.
The man and woman offered incense, and the man squatted on the ground and began to add soil.
He slowly opened each brocade bag.
Traveling southward, no matter where he went, he would take away a handful of local soil. Greenbelt City, Qingqian City, Xinghua Town, Shuanghua City, Fanke Mountain, and even Confucian Jitu Academy, he quietly took them away. A bag of dirt.
Just because of what she said when she said goodbye to her parents for the last time: "My daughter brought a lot of soil from different places to add to the peach tree behind the house. It will definitely look better next spring."
The man in plain clothes just squatted on the ground, poured bags of invisible soil onto the grave, and patted it gently to smooth it.
He covered his face with his hands, his shoulders trembling, and a thin whimpering sound leaked out from between his fingers.
Chen Luyao, don’t like me again in your next life, it’s not worth it.
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