Outside the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, a departed person returns home.
Twenty years have passed in a blink of an eye, and the ancient trees are still evergreen.
The saplings planted by everyone back then have grown to towering heights nestled next to the old trees, but many of those who planted the trees will never see this scene again.
In the past and in the past, things have changed and people have changed. When you leave someone and return home, you will not see your family.
Huai Cao Shi's eyes were full of wind and frost, and he couldn't tell how much sadness was in his confused thoughts. His empty heart was aching, and he always felt that he was still a girl in the early days, around the bonfire in the valley, all the young people often got together, and they were too drunk. He fell drunk and fell into the master's arms.
"Sister."
The clear voice reached his ears, and Huai Cao Shi restrained his confusion.
Her eyes followed the voice, and the little junior sister's appearance was still so beautiful that it was difficult to describe it with pen and ink.
"Little junior sister."
Huaifenghua was dressed in white. Hearing the clear voice of "little junior sister", she had mixed feelings for a moment.
She smiled and said: "Senior sister has returned home, why is she just lingering at the door? If the outer door deacon hadn't informed me, wouldn't senior sister have come in?"
The clearness in Huai Cao Shi's voice was much less, as gentle as before: "Now that junior sister is the master of the valley, senior sister doesn't dare to break in if she doesn't know the rules."
Huaifenghua invited: "Even if senior sister has been away for many years, the rules of Wanhua Valley are still the same as those left by the master. Senior sister has been sleeping and dining all the way, come in quickly."
Huai Caoshi showed Bai Jianwen next to her how to arrange it with her eyes. Huai Fenghua smiled. For some reason, there was a bit of pain in her eyes, "I know you are a royal family, but your status as a royal family is of no use to me. I Let the outer deacon arrange a place for you, if you have any objections."
Bai Jianwen was actually shocked by Huai Fenghua's outstanding and arrogant temperament. After hearing this, he quickly bent down and saluted: "I would like to listen to my uncle's arrangements."
In fact, Bai Jianwen has no talent for learning martial arts and is not a disciple of Huai Cao Shi. However, Huai Cao Shi explained on the way to Wanhua Valley what identity he should hold himself in. He must not be proud of his useless status as a former royal family, otherwise , no matter how large the outer area of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley is, there will be no place for Bai Jianwen.
The Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers is actually a natural extinct volcanic crater. It took countless years of polishing to become the charming place of flowers and plants it is today.
Huai Cao Shi and Huai Feng Hua walked together, both sides remained silent.
It wasn't until they came to a place with the quietest environment and the richest aura that they stopped.
Huaifenghua raised her chin slightly and said, "Senior sister, I know you have a lot to say to Master, Senior Sister and the others. I will come back to you later."
Two lines of tears fell, and Huai Cao Shi said apologetically: "Junior sister, thank you for your hard work. It's because I'm unfilial that I only came back to pay my respects after so many years."
…
At night, Stone City Inn.
There were several people sitting at the dining table in the private room.
Mu Qing withdrew his right hand, looked at Lu Fanrou and shook his head and said: "During the journey today, your wound was bumpy and cracked, so I don't recommend that you leave alone tomorrow morning."
Lu Fanrou said anxiously: "No! I want to go back to find my companions. I can't leave them behind."
Liu Weirui picked a chicken drumstick for Lu Fanrou, "Sister, please don't be brave. We are not far from Tieguguzhai now. You are injured. How can we let you go alone? It seems that you will come back." If you go over there to look for someone, isn’t that asking for your own death?”
Xiao Chan also said anxiously: "Sister, didn't Mr. Mu Qing say that the two people you were worried about before have escaped safely? You don't have to be in such a hurry."
The three women who had also been harmed by Tieguzhai comforted each other in just a few days. Because they shared the same hatred and hatred, it could be regarded as a feeling of feeling like old friends after meeting each other.
Mu Qing nodded, "Miss Fanrou, your injury is a penetrating injury. Several muscles and veins in the front and back are seriously injured. You are still unable to move. I also recommend that you stay with us for a few more days."
Lu Fanrou was straightforward and frank by nature, and said sheepishly: "But I heard from you, brother Mu Qing, that they were seriously injured, especially... especially Brother Xu, the situation is not optimistic."
"oh--"
Liu Weirui and Xiaochan looked at each other and smiled, both making meaningful sounds.
This morning when the three sisters were chatting in the carriage, Liu Weirui thought that Lu Fanrou was interested in Mu Qing, but she didn't expect that she had someone hidden in her heart for a long time.
As a bystander, Liu Weirui showed the wisdom she had accumulated in the past two years by traveling all over the country and advised: "Sister, if you go to them for their own sake, you must want to help them instead of becoming a burden, so you should take good care of your injuries before you go back." Go find them, otherwise you will harm them."
Mu Qing nodded and smiled: "That's the truth."
He looked at Lu Fanrou and said softly: "After getting along with each other these days, Miss Fanrou must have known what my character is like, because I have been dealing with the people in Tieguzhai in the past few days, so I have a question here that has been I didn’t find the time to ask you, so I wonder if Miss Fanrou is willing to answer.”
Lu Fanrou put down her chopsticks and said cautiously: "Young Master saved my life. Logically speaking, I should answer all questions. However, if the matter involves other people's privacy, I hope you will forgive me for not being able to answer all the questions."
A look of surprise flashed across Mu Qingxing's eyes. After hearing this promise, he said in a solemn tone: "Don't worry, miss, I only have one question here. I just want to ask about the woman you said was named Bai Jiahe before. Where did the master come from?"
Lu Fanrou patted her chest lightly. She could still answer this question, so she smiled and said, "Sister Jiahe and Brother Xu came from the same school. Their master is a very beautiful woman."
"oh?"
There was doubt in Mu Qing's eyes. Shaoyao's sect only accepted women, not men. Even when he wanted to change his sect a few years ago, he was only given the status of an outer disciple. Could he have guessed wrong?
Lu Fanrou hadn't finished her words yet: "I really don't know the specific name of their sect, but I heard from Sister Jiahe that the place where their sect is located has a very nice name, called Wanhu Valley."
"Yes, that's the same sect as Shaoyao."
Mu Qing was a little happy. This time when he went back and entered the inner gate area of Ten Thousand Flowers Valley, he would not use the same reasons he had used many times before.
But he was also a little confused and uncomfortable. Why did Wanhua Valley also accept male disciples from the inner sect? Could it be that he was not good enough?
Mu Qing muttered in his heart for a moment, and seeing everyone's eyes on his face, he smiled and said: "I am very familiar with this place in Wanhua Valley. My sister is in there, so you, Brother Xu, and I can be considered half We’re from the same sect.”
"Ah - is there such a thing?"
Mu Qing said with a bit of embarrassment: "Back in the dense forest, I noticed that Bai Jiahe's movement skills were similar to my sister's, so I came to help later. Otherwise, I would probably have chosen to sit on the sidelines."
After Mu Qing finished speaking, he turned his attention to Lu Fanrou. There was no dissatisfaction on Lu Fanrou's face. Instead, she explained for Mu Qing: "This is natural. When walking in the rivers and lakes, if you encounter two parties fighting on the road, don't take action, don't take sides, and protect yourself wisely." That’s how it should be.”
Liu Weirui's eyes lit up when she heard this, she looked at Lu Fanrou yearningly and said, "Sister, how many years have you been wandering around in the world? Have many interesting things happened?"
Lu Fanrou smiled and sighed: "There are more bad places in the world. It is common to have a full meal and a hungry meal, and sleeping in the open air is commonplace. Sometimes, you will suffer unforeseen disasters. People say that 'when peace comes to the temples, troubled times come to the world', this The rivers and lakes in troubled times are like plains without checkpoints. People with enough strength can slant their swords and straddle horses as they please. But if you are not strong enough, it will be a disaster. The rules will overwhelm you and make it difficult for you to move forward. That is a place where there are rules but there are Where rules can be changed or even created, the weak will always survive and the strong will inevitably get lost."
"Hiss--" Lu Fanrou drank the wine in one gulp, her cheeks flushed slightly, and recalled: "But there are many good places in the world. Meeting each other at a late date and falling in love with each other is the most sincere feeling between children in the world. It is also a wonderful thing to meet old friends on those lonely mountain trails and in the woods. On the rivers and lakes, in addition to the charming lights and shadows of swords, this cup of wine is probably the best."
Liu Weirui filled Lu Fanrou's glass with wine and asked with a smile: "What about the swordsman and the knight's first encounter?"
In the days after Mu Qing revealed his true face, whenever he looked at the other person's face, he always felt vaguely that he had seen the other person somewhere before. Until this morning, Lu Fanrou asked about Mu Qing's origin. She suddenly remembered that it was her first encounter with him at the end of Qingyun Street, in front of Liuye Bookstore.
Thinking about it now, Liu Weirui felt a little shy. At that time, she kept bowing her head because of something on her mind. She didn't know what kind of impression it left on him...
Lu Fanrou saw people most clearly when she was drunk. When she saw Lu Weirui pouring wine for her and asking questions, she inadvertently glanced at Mu Qing's face and knew the true meaning.
She smiled softly and said, "Sister, what do you think the stories in the storybooks say? Is it a swordsman meeting a chivalrous girl in the forest, or is it a swordsman who saves a lady on the road?"
Xiaochan saw her young lady lowering her head in shyness, and thought for a moment that she was secretly happy. When she took a quick look, she saw that the so-called "swordsman" who didn't know about this was clinking glasses with her younger brother.
She said with anger in her words, but she said to Li Si: "Is your injury healed? Can you drink?"
Li Si originally wanted to retort: "Didn't you see that Sister Fanrou was drinking too?"
But the fear of his sister since he was a child still made him put down his glass of wine.
Mu Qing looked at this scene and smiled slightly, filled everyone's glasses with wine one after another, raised their glasses and invited them to drink: "Whether Jianghu is good or not depends on whether the wine is beautiful or not. Beauty can be reflected in the wine, that is It’s very beautiful, let’s have a drink together.”
He was afraid that Xiaochan would be embarrassed, so he smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, I'm here."
Xiaochan, like her lady, lowered her head and blushed all over her cheeks.
At dusk in spring, several people in the inn were drinking wine and chatting about the world under the light of candlelight, while Ning Chu outside the inn quietly walked into the inn under the pressure of the night.
Sure enough, this world is full of encounters.
