Zheng Xiu rode his horse, and with Xie Luohe, they galloped straight out of Li City and headed west.
Until daylight comes.
They changed positions on the horse.
In the end, Xie Luohe sat in front with a smile, squeezed into Zheng Xiu's arms, unable to close his legs.
The sunrise behind them revealed the silhouettes of the two of them, stretched out under the horses' hooves.
The scene of him holding Xie Luohe in his arms and galloping on horseback inexplicably reminded Zheng Xiu of the dream he had on the night of reunion when he was still in the imperial city.
In the dream, he and Feng Bei were riding horses, with the mortal world as their company, and they had a pleasant conversation. In the end, Feng Bei took off his gloves and killed himself with a slap.
Zheng Xiu remembered this dream.
Then he looked down at the woman in his arms who was clearly Feng Bei, but claimed to be "Xie Luohe". Suddenly he couldn't tell whether the scene in front of him was reality or a dream.
"be cheated."
Zheng Xiu suddenly slapped his head and shouted that he had been fooled.
"fool."
Xie Luohe smiled even more happily. When he said goodbye to Zheng Xiu in the room, the hidden misery had long since disappeared.
Zheng Xiu turned back, glanced in the direction of Licheng, and sighed: "I should have thought, with your ability like Xie Luohe, how could you put yourself in such an embarrassing situation."
"Who knows."
Xie Luohe tilted his head, humming and pretending to be stupid.
Zheng Xiu: "If I am deceived by you again, my surname will not be Zheng!"
"Your surname is Gongsun, and your given name is just one character, Mo."
Zheng Xiu wanted to deny it.
Xie Luohe turned around and gently touched Zheng Xiu's lips with a finger. His bright eyes were full of expectation: "Just once, whether all this is true or a dream, no matter it is now or two hundred years ago, The past is no longer relevant."
Zheng Xiu looked at Xie Luohe in surprise. There were tears in Xie Luohe's eyes, and he begged: "Even if it's just once, just once. You are neither Zheng Xiu, nor am I Fengbei. It's just Xie Luohe, and Gongsun Mo, that's all." That’s it… okay.”
After Xie Luohe finished speaking, he turned his head, lowered his head, and his weak shoulders trembled slightly.
Cried?
Zheng Xiu almost made an emoticon out of surprise.
impossible.
Zheng Xiu immediately denied it.
Xie Luohe turned his back to Zheng Xiu and sobbed like a kitten from his throat.
Zheng Xiu believed this. He rode with one hand, touched Xie Luohe's hair with the other hand, and agreed: "...Okay."
Xie Luohe's shoulders shook even more.
"Shelo River?"
Xie Luohe finally couldn't help it anymore and laughed wantonly: "Hahaha! Idiot! You lose! A man must keep his word. From now on, you are Gongsun Mo! Hahaha..."
"Grass?"
Zheng Xiu was stunned.
After laughing all the way, Xie Luohe calmed down.
"Okay, I won't tease you anymore. Let me tell you something. You will definitely be interested."
Zheng Xiu rolled his eyes and was considering whether to abandon Xie Luohe and return on his own. But Zheng Xiu soon fell into entanglement. This vast world is not where he belongs. Now even the last hope of leaving "Gong Nie's Treasure House" has become empty. Now Zheng Xiu doesn't know where to go next even if he says "go back" .
While holding his sister in his arms, he was struggling. When Zheng Xiu heard Xie Luohe's words, he immediately pricked up his ears and said suspiciously: "You want to cheat again? You want to cheat me, an ignorant little scholar? You are the majestic head of Yunhe Village, the world's leader. The number one villain, the fiftieth one in the weapons spectrum, a respectable person, can you show some martial ethics?"
"Martial virtue? I'll tell you!" Xie Luohe replied matter-of-factly and without shame, and chuckled: "So I promise you, I will never lie to you this time."
Under Zheng Xiu's suspicious eyes, Xie Luohe mentioned something.
"A few years ago, before you appeared, I searched everywhere. I searched hard and read all the legends and anecdotes from various places..."
"Wait a minute." Zheng Xiu couldn't help interrupting Xie Luohe's story: "You...read a book?"
"Otherwise?" Xie Luohe's eyes flashed, revealing a trace of unconcealable pride: "Don't you think that I, Xie Luohe, am an illiterate wild woman?"
I'm not sure whether you can read or not, but the word "reckless woman" describes you just right.
"Huh? What are you secretly scolding me for?"
Xie Luohe's eyes were empty.
"No, you heard wrong." Zheng Xiu denied.
"Don't make any noise, just listen to me quietly." Xie Luohe pinched Zheng Xiu with his backhand, but he didn't know where. He blushed slightly and continued calmly: "I found that a long time ago, there was a person who had the same relationship as me. The same depression and the same path as me.”
"who?"
Xie Luohe shook his head: "His name and identity have long been lost in history. However, I once read an autobiography of a folk doctor, which recorded in a few words the strange things of a strange man. That ancient doctor Call him 'Candle'."
Xie Luohe paused, the blush on his face dissipated, and continued: "The doctor said in his autobiography that the strange man 'Zhu' had the ability to 'regenerate a broken limb'. It also said that this strange man lived for two hundred years. For more than ten years, he still has 'skin as strong as a mature man and strong energy as an ox'."
Zheng Xiu first exclaimed: "Zhu? Rebirth of a broken limb?"
After being amazed, Zheng Xiu frowned, feeling that he had heard of this strange "name" somewhere.
A bit of a vague impression.
Xie Luohe didn't notice that Zheng Xiu's face was somber at this moment. She was immersed in her memories and said slowly: "Then, during many years of investigation, I discovered something. There were many legends in history, and there were many There are strange people and strange things. Some people have immortal faces, some people can see at night, some people can travel thousands of miles with only a pair of fleshy legs, and some people are like the candle who can be reborn after losing his limbs. Most of the people in the future just think of these strange things. The ancients were ignorant and conjectural, ignorant and stupid. They only regarded the legends as jokes, and no one believed these strange things."
At the end of Xie Luohe's words, his voice was hollow, trembling slightly with the bumps on the road. After a pause, Xie Luohe said: "Except for me... I believe it. I later discovered that 70% of these legends are strange, and it seems that they are all strange." He's talking about...the same person. This person has lived for nearly eight hundred years."
"Later, I followed the footsteps of that person in history, and finally traveled thousands of miles, crossed thousands of mountains, crossed the desert, and arrived at the end of the desert. Finally, when I got there, I was finally sure that that person had been to the desert. The end of the world and left behind a clear legend.”
"It says that a tall man named Zhu ran barefoot, traveling thousands of miles a day, like thunder and lightning. He worshiped the scorching sun and ran towards the setting sun, all the way to the west, running and running. He ran alone across thousands of mountains and across Wanshui. Finally, on a steep mountain, he held the scorching sun in his hands...and was melted."
"People in the desert, isolated from the world, worshiped that person as the reincarnation of an immortal god and built stone statues. At the same time, they recorded this bizarre legend in murals and passed it down from generation to generation." She looked at ease, and it seemed that Zheng Xiu's embrace made her feel extremely at ease, or maybe it was because the cloud-like pleasure of riding up and down on horseback made Xie Luohe unable to bear to stay away.
Xieluohe moved a little, changed into a more comfortable position, and then said: "The residents of the desert call that man...the Sun Chaser. They believe that the candle does not melt by the scorching sun at the end, but becomes one with the scorching sun, so they turn the sky into one The scorching sun was worshiped as the incarnation of a candle, and it became a local custom passed down."
When Zheng Xiu heard this, he suddenly exclaimed: "I remembered it!"
Zheng Xiu was excited for a moment and hugged him tightly, causing Xie Luohe to tremble.
"I remember! I remember! Not long ago... no, two hundred years later... ah, in your dream, the monk, your brother, and I..." Zheng Xiu always felt that this relationship It's strange that he couldn't figure it out for a while, so he simply stopped and told the story of his and the monk's encounter with the "hundred-year-old insect", also known as "cotton slough".
"At that time, the old Jingsha once let me read an ancient book called "Eternal Secret Records". In addition to recording the strange incident of 'hundred-year insect cotton shed', it also wrote about 'Sun Chaser'!"
"So you know." Xie Luohe said this, but in fact he didn't show much shock that Zheng Xiu had heard this legend. He nodded and said: "Deep in the desert, there is a place called 'Sun Cicada Valley' 'A place, adjacent to an oasis, where a village of a hundred people is located. They believe in the 'Sun Chasers', and have preserved the murals very completely for hundreds of years. The murals record something about, um, Chang An and the Stranger. I want to take you to see it with your own eyes."
Originally, in Xieluohe's era, there was no concept of "strangers" and "eternal darkness", but the Xieluohe at this time was not the Xieluohe two hundred years ago. At this moment, Xieluohe understood this through Fengbei's memory.
Zheng Xiu asked curiously: "Don't you remember? Can you draw it?"
Xie Luohe said angrily: "I'm not you, hum, I can't."
"Sure?"
Xie Luohe deceived him over and over again, so much so that Zheng Xiu almost suffered from "Xie Luohe disease", so he had to be suspicious of anything Xie Luohe said.
Xie Luohe said firmly: "No, no, just no."
Since Xie Luohe would bite him to death, Zheng Xiu couldn't force Xie Luohe to paint. Moreover, Zheng Xiu vaguely felt that Xie Luohe's actions were not out of temper. Although the place Xie Luohe mentioned was thousands of miles away, even across the desert, since Xie Luohe felt that the murals on the mountain wall of Richan Valley were so important, Zheng Xiu believed that it was worth it. You might find something out once you have a reason to go.
The following days.
The two walked together.
About a month later, Zheng Xiu realized that he had been tricked by Xie Luohe again.
When they left Li City, Xieluohe clearly showed a look like "I'm about to disappear." However, after the two of them rode horses for more than a month, Xieluohe was still in good condition, with no sign of changing back to Fengbei.
This made Zheng Xiu even more determined. From now on, he would only believe half a word of what Xie Luohe said, no more.
They left without any money. On the way, Zheng Xiu could only make a living by selling paintings. Every time he visited a bustling town, Zheng Xiu, as "Gongsun Mo", would paint mountains, water, fish, insects, birds and beasts. Because of Zheng Xiu's superb painting skills, as well as his unconstrained composition and artistic conception, he painted mountains and rivers on the westward journey. , leaving a lot of good reputation.
In the world of painting, the legend of "Gongsun Painter" gradually spread.
Even when Zheng Xiu first arrived at a place and put up his "Gongsun" stall, some people came here admiringly and paid a lot of money for paintings.
Many people who came to ask for paintings learned that the painter Gongsun had a quirk. He could paint mountains, rivers, birds, animals, fish and insects, but he could not paint living people. Because this unique "eccentricity" has also aroused the curiosity of many wealthy businessmen.
Zheng Xiu also met Hanhan who wanted to force him to paint a portrait, but in the end Xie Luohe persuaded him with his fists without making much noise.
time flies.
Xie Luohe and Zheng Xiu have been heading west together for a month.
The weather is gradually getting warmer.
The season when everything is in full swing with spring.
April twenty-two.
This should have been a day that should be recorded in history, but it was forgotten by history.
"Something bad has happened! Something bad has happened! The border pass has been breached by barbarians! General Zheng is leading an army of 7,000 people outside Yulang Pass to stop the barbarians!"
A story that was both sad and happy was spread among the people, and it didn't take long for the whole world to know about it.
Sadly, the northern border is broken.
Fortunately, it was broken, but not completely broken, and was blocked by General Zheng.
One day, Zheng Xiu returned from setting up a stall and returned to the inn where he had stayed. Like a caring little daughter-in-law, Xie Luohe stepped forward to take off Zheng Xiu's backpack, took off the Luohe pen from her waist, and smelled it on the tip of her nose: "You didn't use the Luohe pen, did you?"
"It's useless." Zheng Xiu shook his head.
Zheng Xiu is still painting the "back" of Xie Luohe every day to deepen his knowledge. Xie Luohe kept a thick pile of Zheng Xiu's paintings, and she never let Zheng Xiu use Luo He's brush to draw anything else. In Xie Luohe's words, this pen is called "Luohe brush", and Luohe brush cannot be used for tacky paintings.
Zheng Xiu couldn't resist Xie Luohe and had no choice but to let her go.
Looking in the mirror, Zheng Xiu looked at his face with a thick beard. He took out a carving knife and went outside to get a basin of water, ready to shave off his beard and restore his former handsome appearance.
Xie Luohe stretched out his hand and gently pressed on the back of Zheng Xiu's hand, narrowed his eyes and smiled: "You'd better stop shaving."
"Why?"
"A real man should have a bit of masculinity, grow a good beard, look happy, and look like a pretty boy all day long, look angry."
When Zheng Xiu heard this, he was stunned: "That's not what you said last month! Didn't you say that you look good when you are clean?"
"Huh, today is different from the past. I have changed, haven't I?"
After saying that, Xie Luohe turned around to pack his luggage and asked, "Have you heard about Manzi?"
"I heard." Zheng Xiu looked at the sharp little carving knife, remembered Xie Luohe's words, hesitated for a while, put it down, and replied casually.
"Do you know General Zheng?"
"Of course, that's my uncle."
Zheng Xiu didn't know which generation of grandfather he was, so he could only call him "uncle" in general, which was fine.
"Haha." Xie Luohe chuckled and didn't ask any more questions. Only then did Zheng Xiu notice that Xie Luohe was packing his luggage, and his clothes had already been changed into the equipment for going out. They originally planned to set off early tomorrow morning, so Zheng Xiu asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Are you packing your bags now?"
Xie Luohe packed his bags for a moment, then sighed softly: "You and I are wanted by the secret factory. Although this place is far away from the north and beyond the reach of the secret factory, we need to leave the city as soon as possible to avoid long nights and dreams."
"Huh? I don't believe it." Zheng Xiu's first reaction was that Xie Luohe was deceiving him again. "I don't believe it" almost became his mantra when communicating with Xie Luohe. Zheng sneered: "What am I wanted for? Tax evasion." ?”
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Zheng Xiu was speechless. His job of running a street stall with no fixed position was indeed a tax evasion.
"Stop talking nonsense and leave quickly."
Zheng Xiu's reaction made Xie Luohe angry and funny. He stuffed his luggage into Zheng Xiu's arms, disguised himself slightly, and hurried out of the city.
Since the release of Duke Nie's treasure house, the secret guards of the secret factory have been hunting down the knights who were once proud of the world. The reason is "An Nei", forcing the former martial arts knights to accept the imperial court's "Chao An" and now wear weapons on the streets. There are 90% fewer people walking.
Xie Luohe had not worn a weapon since Duke Nie's treasure house crushed his bow. Xie Luohe deliberately held Zheng Xiu's arm, pretending to be a couple, without attracting attention, and easily approached the city gate among the officers and soldiers patrolling.
When they arrived at the city gate, when Zheng Xiu saw the wanted notices for himself and Xie Luohe, he realized that Xie Luohe had not deceived him this time. He and Xie Luohe were indeed wanted, and the crime on the warrant was...rebellion.
When Zheng Xiu saw the word "rebellion", he felt ironic for no reason. His dignified Marquis Zhonglie was known as the "loyal family" in Daqian two hundred years later, but he was wanted for "rebellion" two hundred years ago, which made Zheng Xiu almost laugh at his wanted order.
It's June.
The closer you get to the desert, the hotter the climate becomes and the sparsely populated.
After learning that they were wanted, the two made adjustments to their westbound route, deliberately avoiding towns and staying in villages.
July.
The horse, which had been accompanying the two men for several months, was exhausted and died of exhaustion.
Xie Luohe personally buried "Xiu'er" with a sad expression - "Xiu'er" was still the name given by Xie Luohe. At that time, Zheng Xiu was quite critical of this and protested. Xie Luohe said that Zheng Xiu lost the bet and was not allowed to call herself "Zheng Xiu", and she just liked to ride "Xiu'er" under her. What can you Gongsun Mo do?
After burying "Xiu'er", the two of them were only a few hundred miles away from the desert. Xie Luohe took advantage of the deserted surroundings and directly carried Zheng Xiu's collar as if flying close to the ground. It only took half a day to reach the edge of the desert.
(End of chapter)
