Eunuch Li has returned to the capital.
Qiuqiu didn't entangle him too much, and didn't even say harsh words, as if it was just a warning when an old friend met.
Within a moment, he took Duan Wenjun back to the carriage.
At this moment, Mrs. Yinhua and Jiang Shuying were sitting opposite each other, with a touch of sadness on their faces.
Seeing the two men coming back, they all stood up.
"Come on, since we have met our old friend, let's talk while walking!" Qiuqiu waved her hand and walked into the carriage first.
The team continued to move forward, but within a few days, it went further and further off course.
At the beginning, there was still a place to stay and stay, but later on, I kept walking through the deep mountains and old forests.
I don’t know how many days we have been walking, but the weather has gradually turned cold.
In the morning, the mountains were filled with thick fog.
Fortunately, Qiuqiu had prepared a lot of clothes to keep out the cold.
However, Qiuqiu seemed to have something on her mind, and her face remained tense.
The team walked forward for another three or four days, and finally stopped at a small village.
Duan Wenjun got off the carriage, and Mo Shoucheng and Zhao Xiaowu had already dispersed the people.
Qiuqiu's tense face finally showed a faint smile.
The village is very simple and surrounded by dense woods.
Surrounding a huge square in the middle, there are several rows of thatched houses.
What is incompatible with these simple thatched houses is that the center of the square is actually paved with a layer of milky white stones.
The stone was polished smooth and covered with strange runes.
Moreover, the square was very clean, with not even a fallen leaf.
There was silence all around, no one could be seen or heard.
"The king of heaven overshadows the tigers of the earth." Suddenly, Qiuqiu shouted at the top of her voice into the thick fog.
"Pagoda suppresses the river demon!" A hoarse voice sounded from the thick fog in front.
As soon as he finished speaking, a rickety figure slowly appeared in front of everyone from the thick fog.
The voice came towards the crowd, but its pace was extremely slow.
Qiuqiu was not in a hurry, and had no intention of moving forward. Instead, she led everyone to wait where they were.
The man seemed to be walking very slowly, but his steps seemed very large. In just a few breaths and a few leaps, he arrived in front of them.
Duan Wenjun's eyes fell on the visitor's face.
This is an old face.
His face was covered with wrinkles like pine bark.
His eyes were small, slightly squinted at the moment, hidden under drooped eyelids.
If you don't look carefully, you won't even notice it.
The two snow-white eyebrows are very long, going deep into the temples.
The bridge of the nose is high and pointed, slightly hooked inward.
Typical hooked nose.
What was incongruous with his thin face was his huge mouth.
Taking up almost a third of his face.
The rickety old man was holding a cane in his hand, looked up at Qiuqiu, and then sighed, "I didn't expect you to come back."
In Duan Wenjun's surprised eyes, Qiuqiu bowed respectfully to the old man, "Yes, I'm back!"
"I'm back, it's good to be back!" The rickety old man sighed longly. "I think you won't come back for no reason!"
Just when Qiuqiu wanted to answer, the rickety old man waved his hand, "Don't say anything yet, let me guess first!"
After saying that, he looked at Duan Wenjun and others.
However, Duan Wenjun was a little surprised. The rickety old man slowly walked up to Jiang Shuying and looked at him carefully, "That kid Jiang Chaonan, who are you?"
Jiang Chaonan, that boy...
The rickety old man's words immediately shocked Jiang Shuying and Duan Wenjun.
You must know that Jiang Chaonan served Emperor Gaozu and was an important minister during the late emperor's period.
In terms of age, he is already over sixty now.
However, the rickety old man called him a boy, which shows that the old man is probably very senior.
Especially, even people with Qiuqiu's status are so respectful to him...
The identity of this person is definitely not simple.
Naturally, Jiang Shuying did not dare to neglect him. She said to the rickety old man, "Jiang Shuying has met the old man. Jiang Chaonan is the little girl's grandfather."
The rickety old man was stunned when he heard this. He stared at Jiang Shuying for a few more times, and then nodded slightly. "In a flash, decades have passed again. I have heard about your grandfather, but..."
The rickety old man stopped speaking midway through his words.
"Your grandpa is a man, but what he did was too extreme!" The rickety old man sighed longly and shook his head slightly.
"Old senior, did you know my grandfather? Do you know what happened back then?" Jiang Shuying suddenly became extremely excited.
The rickety old man looked at her, then turned to look at Qiuqiu, "After all these years, can't you figure out why he refused to leave back then?"
"Why?" Almost in unison, Qiuqiu and Mrs. Yinhua both spoke.
"If nothing had happened to the Jiang family, how could the late emperor believe that there were two shadow gates in the world?" The rickety old man's eyes overflowed with crystal tears. "He was warning the late emperor with his own life and the lives of the entire Jiang family!"
"The late emperor knew about our existence, and he also knew that he was my disciple." Looking at the confused expressions of everyone, the rickety old man continued, "Especially, he is my son-in-law, and he is going to replace me in the future and be in charge of the Shadow Sect. people."
"Since the fall of the Wei Dynasty, the Shadow Gate has been like a rat crossing the street." Qiuqiu looked puzzled. "Back then, the late emperor followed Emperor Gaozu to the temple. How could he not know that the Shadow Gate on the rivers and lakes is not yours?" Where is the Shadow Gate?”
The rickety old man shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Some things are not a matter of knowing or not knowing, but whether you are willing or not."
Qiuqiu's brows frowned, and he seemed unwilling to believe such an answer.
However, in the end he said nothing more.
The rickety old man looked at Jiang Shuying and continued, "Your grandfather is the most proud disciple of my life, and the most open-minded and thoughtful one."
Jiang Shuying kept staring at him, "You are my grandfather's father-in-law, wouldn't that mean..."
"My child, you guessed it right!" The rickety old man nodded and interrupted her. "Didn't your master tell you about your grandfather's past?"
Jiang Shuying shook her head in confusion, "Master has been looking for the murderer who killed grandpa and my Jiang family all his life, but after so many years, we have not found any clues!"
"If the clues were so easy to find, the late emperor would not regret it for the rest of his life." The rickety old man shook his head, with a wry smile on his face. "Back then, the late emperor spent a lot of effort to beg your grandfather to come out. And he always felt that , if nothing happened to your grandfather, the whole Dashun would not be as precarious as it is now."
When he said this, he turned to look at Qiuqiu again, "Actually, you have always wrongly blamed the late emperor. In his eyes, whether the Chai family is in power or the Zhao family is emperor, these are not important. The important thing is , can the people in this world live a better life?"
"This is what he told me and Jiang Chaonan back then."
The rickety old man sighed deeply, "Too many people in this world only see the surface, but fail to see the reality beneath the surface, so they make wrong judgments and do wrong things."
Hearing this, everyone present was stunned.
