The guard got Lu Zijin's order and walked in front to lead Xu Huaigu. Xu Huaigu followed him downstairs and walked no more than half of the narrow street before stopping in front of a one-story wooden house.
The guard stood still at the door, lowered his head and said to Xu Huaigu: "Mr. Xu, General Chu is inside." Xu Huaigu nodded to indicate that he understood, and the guard turned and left.
He stood at the door, straightened his clothes, and knocked gently.
"Come in." Chu Xiuyang's voice came from inside. Xu Huaigu pushed the door open and entered. There were two beds inside, with Chu Xiuyang and Fan Xuan lying on them respectively.
"The one who delivered the medicine, right? Just put it on the bedside table. I'm not in the mood to drink it now. I'll talk about it later." Chu Xiuyang lay on the bed, closing her eyes, her face full of loss and pain.
She didn't open her eyes, so naturally she didn't know that it was Xu Huaigu who came in. Fan Xuan saw it, but she just opened her mouth slightly but didn't dare to make a sound.
Xu Huaigu didn't say anything. He just sat down on a chair next to the bed and looked at Chu Xiuyang helplessly.
Just at this moment, the door was pushed open again, and a soldier walked in with a bowl of boiling medicinal soup in both hands and said: "General, your medicine is here!"
"Didn't I tell you to put it next to the bed?" Chu Xiuyang's tone was very impatient. The soldier was startled and could neither advance nor retreat for a moment.
Chu Xiuyang opened her eyes angrily, only to see a helpless soldier and Xu Huaigu sitting on a chair. This made her a little confused.
Xu Huaigu came to the rescue of the soldier and said, "Okay, just put the medicine on the table."
"Okay." The soldier seemed to be frightened by Chu Xiuyang and was a little panicked. He hurriedly delivered the medicine and left quickly without stopping too much.
Xu Huaigu looked at the soldier's leaving figure and said, "This kid's face looks very childish. He should be no more than twenty. You scared him." Chu Xiuyang curled his lips, turned his head to the other side, and refused to go. Look at Xu Huaigu.
"I know what's bothering you." Xu Huaigu picked up the medicine, blew on it, and handed it to her.
"Come, drink the medicine first, and then talk about other things." Chu Xiuyang frowned, feeling aggrieved and guilty, and said: "Look at me like this now, how can I drink the medicine? I can't even drink water. Go down." Xu Huaigu had no choice but to put down the medicine and advised: "This is the decision made by Lu Zijin. You are only responsible for the implementation. Don't blame yourself too much. Even if it were Lu Zijin who led the troops to break out, he might not be able to do it. It's better." Chu Xiuyang asked, "Have you met Lu Zijin just now?"
"Yes, I just came out from him and came to see you." Upon hearing this, Chu Xiuyang asked hurriedly: "Then let me ask you, how many of the soldiers from Tanglin Pass are left to return to Wuliang? Does he have Didn't he tell you?" Xu Huaigu paused, not knowing whether to tell the truth or a lie, so he hesitated: "I'm not in charge of military affairs, what did he tell me to do? I don't know." Chu Xiuyang He closed his eyes, his face turned red with anger, and said: "Everyone of you is hiding the truth from me and refusing to tell me. I am the general guarding Tanglin Pass. I don't know how many soldiers under me are still alive, but I don't know! Okay! , since you are also with Lu Zijin, why are you coming to see me? Let's go!" Xu Huaigu looked at her with a troubled expression.
Seeing that the situation was anxious, Fan Xuan hurriedly advised: "General, don't be angry, Lu Zijin and Xu Huaigu are also thinking about your recovery." Chu Xiuyang said angrily: "If you are thinking about me, you should tell me! Now I can't be at peace all the time. All that comes to mind is this matter, and this is just for my recovery!"
"There are more than 8,000 people left." Xu Huaigu said suddenly.
"Eight thousand..." Chu Xiuyang's heart suddenly grasped, and her hands unconsciously grabbed the quilt tightly. She murmured: "It's too little. Did Lu Zijin make a mistake? Did he really say that?" Xu Huaigu secretly took out a nail-sized pill from his sleeve when she wasn't paying attention and put it into the soup. inside.
He said: "It's absolutely true. There should be no mistake in such a major military matter."
"No, I have to go find him." Chu Xiuyang said, lifting the quilt and preparing to get up. This movement involved the injury again, and she was suddenly in unbearable pain.
He took in a breath of cold air. Xu Huaigu stopped her and said seriously: "Even if you want to go find him, you have to drink medicine first, otherwise you will never come out of this house." Chu Xiuyang glanced at Xu Huaigu and saw that his tone was firm and did not sound like he was lying, so he had no choice but to After drinking the decoction in one gulp, he was about to get out of bed, but he felt a wave of dizziness coming over him, his mind was groggy, and he fell down unconsciously and fell asleep.
Xu Huaigu placed her on the bed, covered her with a quilt, then stood up and sighed. Fan Xuan was a little worried and said: "The monk took too much medicine, I'm afraid her body won't be able to hold on." Xu Huaigu looked at her and said helplessly: "Look at her like this, if I don't take the medicine, she will rest peacefully ?" Fan Xuan nodded and said: "That's right." Xu Huaigu still sat back on the original chair and looked at Chu Xiuyang for a while. When he thought of her and her brother Chu Wenze, who was still far away as the prince in Fusang Kingdom, he felt a little... I had a headache and couldn't help but rub my eyebrows.
Neither of them spoke, and the room was silent. After a long while, Fan Xuan broke the silence and said softly: "Thank you."
"Thank you for what?" Fan Xuan felt her heart beating fast and her words were uncontrollable as she said, "Thank you for saving me." Xu Huaigu said slowly: "You saved Chu Xiuyang, and I will save your life again. This is very reasonable, one life for another, you don’t owe me anything.”
"No, I owe you." After Fan Xuan said this, she pursed her lips tightly and her heart beat rapidly. As if she was afraid that Xu Huaigu would say something, she didn't dare to turn around and look at him.
There was silence for a long time in her ears. Fan Xuan couldn't help but couldn't help but shed tears. She said to herself: "La" Xu Huaigu's tone was flat and emotionless: "Are you talking about what happened back then?" "Fan Xuan cried even harder, but she was afraid that Xu Huaigu would hear her and be disgusted by him, so she tried her best not to make a sound.
That look was so aggrieved and aggrieved that no matter how hard-hearted a person was, he would still feel sad when he saw it.
Xu Huaigu said: "Well, let's put it another way. You once owed me a life, but now you have saved Chu Xiuyang, one life is worth another life. As for me saving you, this life will be counted separately." Fan Xuan heard this. , it seemed as if Xu Huaigu had forgiven her.
Immediately, her heart suddenly relaxed, and she quickly looked at Xu Huaigu, eagerly opening her mouth to ask clearly, but the words were stuck in her throat, but she could not say them out.
"Wipe your tears. Otherwise, if someone sees you later, they will say that I bullied you." Fan Xuan randomly wiped a few tears with her sleeves, but the tears flowed more and more, as if she couldn't wipe them away. Completely.
Seeing how pitiful she was, Xu Huaigu sighed deeply and asked, "How have you been these past years?"
"It's just like that." Fan Xuan was stunned for a while before replying,
"It's almost the same as before that incident. I practice most of the time, but it's not as smooth as before. Sometimes I start to doubt the purpose of practice, and sometimes I feel very guilty about myself, feeling that I have given up to the sect. Men and Master are embarrassed, and sometimes I will think of you. In short, the realm has not moved much." Fan Xuan stopped when she said this, Xu Huaigu did not answer her words, and there was silence in the room again. .
"Actually, actually..." Fan Xuan's mood was almost broken, her tears couldn't stop flowing, and she said several words in her mouth.
"Actually", but I couldn't say anything else, so I could only shed tears more and more. The tears were like floods that had burst a dam, staining a large area of bedding.
From the time Fan Xuan can remember, she has spent time in the Zixia Sect, except for one time when she was very young, because she was lazy and did not go to practice. After being severely scolded by the master once, she started to cry, so the master scolded her. More ruthless.
Except for that one time, I never cried again. Even in the last Taoist meeting, when she lost to Xu Huaigu and lost even the last trace of dignity, she only felt very lost and never cried.
In the impression, her master only taught her a lesson once, and never said another word about studying after that.
She always felt that her master was very strict, and she was always a little afraid of her. She felt that if she was not high enough and promising enough, she would be rejected by the master.
But since the Taoist meeting, she lost to Xu Huaigu, her Taoist heart was completely damaged, and her future was bleak. Her master didn't say anything and still treated her exactly as before.
At that time, she felt that her master was kind and affectionate. Perhaps this was also the reason why she had persisted in coming through after falling from high to low over the years.
However, all of this finally collapsed when facing Xu Huaigu. She burst into tears in front of him, and even she couldn't tell whether it was guilt or fear, or both.
Behind the word "actually", there was something she had been wanting to say but couldn't say out loud all these years. She originally thought she could tell Xu Huaigu, but the words were stuck in her throat, and she could not get out or come back.
"Actually what?" Xu Huaigu asked simply. However, such a simple and emotionless sentence seemed to give her the final motivation, so Fan Xuan said all the words she had been holding back.
"Actually, I have always felt very sorry for you and for her. At that time, I, I was really too ignorant. I just wanted to show my hand in front of my master and give face to my master and the sect. I didn't I knew it would bring such consequences! I'm sorry, Xu Huaigu, I'm sorry..." Fan Xuan burst into tears, and she said in a hoarse voice: "But people can't be resurrected after death, so what's the use of regretting it? Sometimes I also feel that I am living like this. I'm tired, why don't you just kill me at that Taoist meeting, and I will pay for her life, so that it can be settled. But at the Taoist meeting, it was my master who saved me after all, and I also wanted to find you later. I will pay for her with my life, but I am very afraid of seeing you, really afraid. When I saw you in Xingqing City, I pretended to be calm, but in fact I was extremely panicked..." Fan Xuan said more and more, The more she talked, the more confused she became. When it came to the end, Xu Huaigu didn't know what she was talking about.
But he knew that Fan Xuan should truly regret and change her mind. But as Xu Huaigu himself said, no one can replace a dead person to forgive her murderer. Xu Huaigu could not say it.
"It doesn't matter" comes from these three words. Xu Huaigu asked: "Who is she?" Fan Xuan stopped talking and was stunned for a moment.
"What's her name? Tell me. You keep talking about her but don't mention her name. Fan Xuan, the person you want to apologize to is not me, but her." Fan Xuan's eyes were red with tears from crying. Guang glanced at Xu Huaigu, seeming to understand a little.
Xu Huaigu said quietly: "You have to apologize to her." After a long time, Fan Xuan slowly spoke and murmured to the ground: "Zhuang Yeyun, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for you." The surroundings were unusually quiet, and no one answered her.
So Fan Xuan said it several times, Xu Huaigu remained silent, Chu Xiuyang slept soundly, and the room remained quiet.
Fan Xuan asked Xu Huaigu, "But even if I say this, I don't know if she has forgiven me." Xu Huaigu closed his eyes and whispered, "If you want to know the answer of the deceased, you can ask Feng."
"How to ask?"
"You have to say, if you forgive me, blow a gust of wind. If you don't want to forgive me, please stop the wind." Fan Xuan choked with sobs: "Zhuang Yeyun, I'm sorry, I sincerely changed my mind, please forgive me. If If you forgive me, just blow a gust of wind. If you don't want to forgive me, please stop the wind." Xu Huaigu looked out the window.
I saw that the world had been quiet before, but suddenly a sudden gust of wind blew, and the leaves were rustled, and it took a long time to stop.
Fan Xuan was stunned for a while, and then burst into tears. Xu Huaigu closed his eyes gently, retracted his fingers into his sleeves, and quietly stopped the technique.
