After listening to the story told by a little demon, the young man under the umbrella left the mountain road with the umbrella and the sword on his back, full of sadness.
Just not heading towards Lingbei.
But further south in Lingnan, a certain ancient southern city is still immersed in the excitement of the New Year.
All the stories are just like what Bai Yuyao saw last year when he was spying on the fate of the world in the lake house in the mountains in the north.
The story may be this.
...
"She was beaten to death by the river by a young man from the Human Sword Sect."
Li Li sat down on the edge of the mountain path. Perhaps to make it more comfortable, he put down the wine jar and took off the sword behind him, intending to tell some stories with this young man who was also an old friend of Shu Shu.
Nan Dao stood there holding an umbrella, looking at the young man and asked in a low voice: "Why?"
Li Li was silent for a long time, and then said softly: "I don't know. When I went there, her demonic power had collapsed and she had returned to her true form. But I may have guessed something from the words of those Sword Sect disciples."
Li Li looked at the letter in his arms quietly.
"She may know some secrets of a certain Sword Sect disciple."
When Nan Dao heard this, he suddenly clenched the umbrella in his hand.
"What secret?"
"I have no idea."
"When was that?"
Li Li said softly: "The day when the mountains in Lingnan were closed."
Nan Dao stared blankly at the little demon boy in front of him.
The day when the mountains in Lingnan were closed.
It was also the day when the people of Qingtian Dao came.
So when was that?
Nan Dao stood there breathing heavily, then unconsciously stepped back a few steps, staggered, and almost fell into the snow.
The world is like thunder rising above Pinghu Lake.
Then thousands of wind and rain fell suddenly, completely submerging the young man.
Are you really safe and sound and staying in Lingnan?
A voice rang in Nan Dao's heart.
The question made his hands and feet feel cold, as if his arms were full of wind and snow.
Li Li didn't notice the boy's abnormality, but still lowered his head and spoke with sadness.
Until the young man gasped for breath, bent over and held his knees, sweating coldly and saying that sentence with a pale face.
"I know the secret."
Li Li raised his head and looked at the young man who had changed his appearance on the mountain path, and was stunned.
"What did you say?"
"I know the secret."
The young man's expression was full of pain, full of regret and guilt.
"Hu Lu may not know that I know it, but he only knows that Shu Shu knows the secret."
The young man finally raised his head and looked at the little demon boy in front of him with trembling eyes.
"I used that secret to test the people in the north."
The young man only said this.
What the secret is is not an important thing in this story.
So Nandao was not mentioned.
The tanuki boy sitting there didn't even mention it.
He just suddenly picked up his sword and stood up.
With a cold sound of being unsheathed, the sword touched Nan Dao's heart.
Maybe some have penetrated.
So the blood is slowly flowing on the blade.
Tanuki didn't say anything, but continued to push his sword forward angrily.
But there was a cold light flashing in the mountain snow.
It's Parrot Island.
The sword in Li Li's hand was cut off by a sword, leaving only a piece hanging on Nan Dao's heart, and then fell slumped.
Parrot Island is suspended beside the South Island with cold light shining on the mountain snow.
The young man holding the black umbrella may have finally recovered. After driving Yiaozhou to cut off Lili's sword, he did not hold the sword and just stood there silently.
It wasn't until the little demon boy picked up the sword again in the snow and came towards Nandao with sword intent that Nandao finally raised his hand to hold Parrot Island, and with a clanging sound, he struck out with his sword. The sword of the boy in orange was cut off again.
Then the mountain road became quiet.
Two young men stood holding swords.
Li Li, the only remaining young demon of the Lame Deer Sword Sect, had an angry face, like a cat with fried fur.
But Nandao gradually calmed down.
"I don't want to talk about whether it was intentional or unintentional." Nan Dao held Yiaozhou in his hand, turned to look at the snow in the south, and said softly, "I killed Shushu, so I owe her, but it has nothing to do with you. "
Li Li held the broken sword, and he naturally knew that he would not be the opponent of the young man holding the umbrella.
"It doesn't make sense to say something like this."
"Of course I know."
Nan Dao put away the sword in his hand, turned around and headed down the mountain.
"I will go to Nanyi City myself to atone for the mistake I made."
Li Li sneered and looked at the young man's leaving figure.
"How do you redeem it?"
"I will kill Hu Lu."
"I thought you would die to apologize."
Li Li's sarcastic voice echoed on the mountain path.
Nan Dao stopped and looked at the umbrella in his hand.
"Perhaps the world cannot afford such an apology."
Naturally, Nandao will not forget the wind and snow ten miles outside Nanyi City.
Tanuki Li did not catch up with the boy.
Just like it was in Nanyi City.
There were many things he was still unable to do.
So there is no need for the sword to be broken a third time.
He just squatted down silently, picked up the two broken swords, placed them on the wine jar, and then carried the wine jar towards Lame Deer Sword Sect.
After walking for a long time, he turned back and looked at the snow in Lingnan Mountain.
There is a young man walking quietly in the snow, with his head lowered, perhaps strengthening his determination.
So I walked and drank.
Li Li stood silently in the wind.
For him, the best story is naturally that this young man killed another young man and then died in the human sword sect.
Of course, everyone is at fault for Shushu's death.
So does myself.
If only there hadn't been so much hesitation in those stories.
Everything would not be like this.
Li Li opened the wine seal and looked at his reflection in the altar quietly.
Maybe for a moment, he thought about drowning himself like those people from the ancient Taoist sect.
But in the end, he didn't do that. He just raised the wine jar, took a big sip, and then walked towards the mountain.
Li Li threw his broken sword in the mountain, and then picked up a sword used by one of his senior brothers from the forest nearby.
The sword is broken, but the man is still there.
Li Li took the sword and walked up the mountain.
...
Hulu may have put something down, maybe not.
It's just that after the New Year, after all, I no longer look as depressed as before.
On the first day of the new year, he played cards with his senior brothers for a day, and also helped to receive some people visiting from the city.
No one mentioned the little demon on the Nanyi River.
Everyone came and left talking and laughing.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Hu Lu stopped playing cards and walked past the concierge carrying a sword and a bottle of wine.
When Mei Quming and the others saw him like this, they asked worriedly: "Where are you going?"
Hu Lu raised the wine bottle in his hand and said calmly: "I'm going to give Shushu some wine."
Mei Quming and the others were silent for a while, but they didn't say anything. They just said softly: "Go early and come back early."
"Um."
Hu Lu nodded and walked out of the concierge.
The world is still very lively.
This kind of excitement will last for a long time, maybe until around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
Maybe it will disappear sooner.
It is impossible for people in Nanyi City not to know the story of the south.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there is the Taiyi Spring Festival.
If Huangliang really sacrifices to gods and ghosts again, it will naturally not be good news for Nanyi City.
Hu Lu was walking quietly on the street with a bottle of wine. Someone saw this young boy from the Sword Sect on the roadside. Maybe he wanted to say hello, but for some reason, he put away his raised hand again. , walked past.
Therefore, although many things are no longer mentioned by the world, their memories will always remain.
Hu Lu naturally saw this scene, but said nothing.
He didn't know what to say, so he just lowered his head and walked along the river bank.
Until it stopped again at the place where the small boat parked.
It's like carving a boat to find a sword.
Hulu carved a sword mark of memory on the riverside, and then searched for the existence of that figure in the long river of time.
If it were someone else.
This may be a touching thing.
But he is a gourd.
It was the boy who came drunkenly in the snow on the day Zhang Xiaoyu left without saying goodbye and Chen Huaifeng suddenly left, and beat the mouse demon to death on the ice on the river bank.
The gourd sat there quietly.
Senior Brother Huaimin's Sleepless Sword was also inserted there.
The people in Nanyi City remained untouched.
What Hu Lu did is still an unsolved case that has not been explained to the world.
But the world didn't pull out the sword and went to the Sword Sect to ask for a reason.
After all, it was the Human Sword Sect that held up this ancient city.
Rather than a girl on the river ferry.
Hu Lu placed the pot of wine on the guardrail and looked down.
There is still ice on the riverside, but it is clean and bloodless.
Maybe someone nearby washed them, or maybe when the snow stopped and melted, the bright red went with the river.
Anyway, there's no trace left there.
But Hu Lu remembers it clearly.
How he drew his sword and raised his fist at that time.
Blaming everything on drunkenness will only make you more and more miserable.
So after Hu Lu sat by the Yichi River Bridge for a long time, he finally admitted it frankly.
When he walked out of Jianzong, he thought about killing the little mouse demon on the river.
Or maybe earlier.
When he saw Senior Brother Huai Feng standing in the winter wind in great distress.
That sentence, "If senior brother can't take action, then I will do it, maybe it's really not a joke."
When Hu Lu thought about it like this, she felt a little painful, but the pain was naturally much weaker than struggling with shirk.
"I thought about it for a long time afterwards."
The young man leaned on the railing and looked at the water of the river, talking to himself.
"Actually, I had many choices at that time. I didn't have to kill you."
"For example, I can sit on your boat and watch you all day long until those stories are finally settled - it is undeniable that at that time, I was really frightened by many of Brother Huaifeng's words, such as Qingtian Dao The war with the Human Sword Sect.”
Hu Lu paused dullly for a long time, picked up the wine bottle and took a sip.
"But later, it wasn't until my senior brothers told me some stories about Lingnan that I realized that I had thought too much. Even if you really sent such a letter to the world, unless it was absolutely necessary, Qingtian Dao would never It is impossible to fall out with the Human Sword Sect because of this."
Hu Lu looked up at the dusk sky on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
There were still children setting off fireworks in the glow after the snow stopped, but they were far less brilliant than at night.
On the contrary, among such rich tones and such fireworks, there is a pale and cool feeling.
Like a lonely, lonely mouse demon sleeping forever in the river.
Hu Lu lowered his head.
"So you are right. After a young man hears some stories, he thinks he is mature and can freely consider many things - but this world does not bully young people. I was the one who should have been rejected by my senior brothers. Bullied little boy."
"Therefore the rush, therefore the fear."
Gourd shed tears in the dusk by the river.
The people passing by were walking in a hurry, as if they had not seen the young man crying by the river. They came and left as if there was no one around.
Hu Lu raised her hand to wipe her tears with her sleeves, then picked up the pot of wine placed on the guardrail and tilted it into the river.
A line of wine disappeared into the dusk and poured onto the ice on the river, flowing everywhere like tears.
Hu Lu seemed to have seen such a small boat coming slowly in the big human river that would take a long time to thaw.
There is a girl at the head of the boat holding her chin, waiting for the wine to be heated on the stove at the head of the boat.
"Your wine doesn't taste good, drink mine."
Hu Lu wanted to say this to the girl.
But he didn't say it out loud.
However, he heard such words while still in the bustling and noisy world.
Hu Lu turned around, and there was a young man who looked very tired standing by the river, holding an umbrella and holding a black wine pot in his hand. There was half a pot of peach blossom wine in the pot, and there were a few pieces of wine in it. The boiled peach blossoms fell into the river.
Hu Lu was stunned - in April last year, he saw with his own eyes that such a young man was stabbed by his senior brother's sword and fell into the river.
So you're not dead yet?
Hu Lu thought blankly.
Or is it already dead, but just like the ghost faces and flowers blooming back then, the dead sometimes come back to the world again?
Nan Dao said nothing, just stood by the river, quietly watching the line of water go away.
The pot of peach blossom wine that Le Chaotian had cooked for him all morning was indeed delicious.
So Nan Dao drank all the way and still had half a bottle left.
Shushu would probably enjoy drinking such wine.
Nan Dao still remembers the appearance of the girl standing on the bow of the boat with her feet in hand when she first came to Nanyi City, asking for a drink from him.
In fact, while walking along the way, Nan Dao kept thinking that maybe the young man was unsettled after the Lame Deer Sword Sect was wiped out, so he went crazy and imagined such a story.
Perhaps in Nan Dao's memory and his vision of the future, that girl will remain on the Nanyi River for a long time, until one day she collects 100,000 copper coins to find the girl who is missing a door. If a Taoist changes his life, he will walk comfortably in the world. Maybe one day, they will meet again somewhere in the world, and he is thinking about something with a sad face.
So the little demon girl came with a boat in the clear stream.
He smiled and asked him what troubled him, and then pursued the story that Nan Dao still hadn't told clearly.
Although it was such a story, Nan Dao himself didn't even remember what he was going to tell.
Maybe that's why.
A girl who was waiting to hear a story disappeared one day.
Shushu is naturally a good friend of Nandao.
He was also his first friend in Nanyi City.
After disappearing in Nanke Town, Nan Dao began to seriously remember his friends in Nanyi City.
If Nanyi City also disappears one day, he can dig out some memories from the years and find someone to confront him to prove that he has indeed stayed in Nanyi City in such chaos.
only.
Scrat is dead.
So Nan Dao didn't want to risk a lot of life and death, but still let the boy Shushu liked very much stab him.
I am still willing to go all the way south and go back to the road I used to take.
Come and do something.
Until the remaining half of the pot of peach blossom wine was poured into the big river that took Muxue away with the human cruise ship.
The young man under the umbrella let go of the wine bottle and let it fall into the river.
It fell on the ice below and was smashed into pieces. Some unfinished wine flowed out of the broken wine bottle.
Like a juicy, overripe fruit that has been broken with a fist.
Hu Lu stared blankly at the place where the hip flask was broken.
That might be the place where Shushu's head was smashed by him that day.
Maybe not.
Hu Lu just stared in silence and fear - that kind of emotion came from the impact of some pictures that he didn't want to remember.
So Hu Lu initially just thought that this place was clean.
It was as if I sincerely admitted some logical errors, some aggressive behavior, and some teenage impulses.
The girl who was punched to death would forgive everything.
Of course not.
So Hu Lu heard a crisp sword sound.
Then the sound of the sword began to echo in his chest.
This young man from Lingnan may have finally gotten rid of some bad habits, such as the habit of chattering to others about innocuous topics - that may be able to cover up some panic and fear.
But now Nandao is not panicked or afraid. On the contrary, he is extremely calm.
He even knew how big a ripple this sword attack would cause in the entire south.
But he said nothing, no greetings after a long absence, no painful questions.
He just abandoned the wine bottle, and then simply pulled out the sleepless sword inserted between the two of them, the sleepless sword Jiang Ye left to the world.
All the greetings, all the questions, all the outpourings and regrets.
It's all in that crisp sword.
The city seemed to be stagnant in twilight.
But it is not the twilight that is stagnant, but all the people coming and going on the streets.
When a certain snow started, they saw a story about a boy beating a girl to death.
And at the end of a certain snow, they saw another boy stabbing that boy with a sword.
Then the sword intent began to fill the street, and it all landed on the sleepless sword in a measured way.
After Hu Lu was briefly surprised, she chuckled with relief.
There was no resistance, even if his level was lower than Nan Dao, he might not be able to resist.
"It turns out you came back just for this matter."
Hu Lu said softly and let go of the hand holding the wine bottle.
Let those sword intentions pass through the Sleepless Sword, like a huge snowstorm, heading towards his chest amidst the deepening sound of the sword.
