The autumn wind blows by, and my thoughts rise like a tide. At this season, the nights in Fuyang County are obviously colder.
Not to mention Yu Ruyi, who has been living in the milder climate in the south of the Yangtze River since childhood and has never set foot in the northern frontier, even He Nan, who was born in February in the harsh winter and has lived in the north for twelve or thirteen years, also felt the autumn wind this year. Mixed with a hint of bitter cold.
That is to say, Yan Chunlai and Wei Kui were two martial arts practitioners. One of them had a yang energy and the other had a very strong physical body, so they did not feel strange about the increasingly cool weather.
The four people were sitting around the He Nan family's house at this time. There was a small stove on the ground at their feet, and a hot pot boiling with hot soup was boiling on the stove.
"Why are you looking so sad all the time? Could it be because you treated us to a nice meal?" Seeing that He Nan's face was always gloomy and the atmosphere on the table was rather depressed, Wei Kui wanted to make a joke to liven up the atmosphere.
"Isn't he always like this yesterday afternoon?" Yu Ruyi picked at the bowl again and again with the chopsticks in her hand, playing with a piece of green vegetables, but she still didn't take a bite.
"I have paid attention to this, but I don't know what you are worried about..." Yan Chunlai put a piece of meat in his mouth, his voice was a little vague, "Is this something the Censor told you?"
"Go forward, when we leave Pinjin Pavilion..."
"Hmm...start with Manager Chi flipping the table?"
He Nan, the official master, didn't say a word, but these few people were already discussing it.
In the end, Yu Ruyi, who was the most thoughtful and thoughtful, came to the conclusion: "Let's start after reading the letter Chi Zebao brought." After thinking about it, the two rough guys also felt that it made sense - He Nan's emotions The changes seem to have started from that time.
"Hey..." He Nan finished the beef in the bowl, put down his chopsticks, and drank the wine in the glass: "You guys eat first, I'll go and relax." After that, he stood up and pushed away. He opened the door and walked into the courtyard.
Yesterday, Yan Chunlai took He Nan out alone and repeated Li Zhanchun's instructions to him. The main content was that Zhou Xun, the governor of Shuihan County, was also his personal disciple. He Nan had never met him before. Fellow senior fellow student. Zhou Xun was also newly transferred to Shuihan County. The affairs must be quite complicated, so it would be better to let He Nan work as a clerical clerk under him first to help his senior brother share some of the pressure.
He Nan also agreed to this matter. He even felt that this senior brother was probably specially mobilized by his master to help him. However, although Shuihan County and Fuyang County are adjacent to each other, it will be the end of the month before his senior brother can report what happened.
After everything was explained, the tied up Tianbianwei man in the room also woke up slowly, with a look of tears on his face. Yan Chunlai was kind enough to give him back the Tianbian Guard uniform that he had robbed and then let him go.
After spending a night in Fuyang City, everyone followed He Nan to his hometown, Xuanyang County under Fuyang County early this morning.
There are several to dozens of counties under the jurisdiction of a county, and the selection system of officials is to select people from the county as much as possible. The only exception is the order of a county, which must appoint officials whose native place is other counties. However, this is also to prevent people in the county from colluding with the local powerful, and the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, and the same is true for higher-level local officials and county governors, so He Nan's father, who is from Xuanyang County, went to Qingming County Be a county magistrate.
He Nan's residence in Xuanyang County is a fairly large square yard. He has never returned home in these years, so he has always left it to his uncle He Lei and aunt He Ni to take care of it. However, the He Lei brothers and sisters are not here either. The director lives here, but he only comes to do some simple cleaning every other month, and add incense to the gods enshrined in the house during holidays.
Today was not a day for the He Lei brothers and sisters to come to clean, so He Nan did not meet any of his relatives. Since it was already getting dark when he arrived in the county town, He Nan simply bought some food and wine at the street market to prepare. Tomorrow I will visit my relatives who have been taking care of me.
As soon as he opened the door of his long-awaited home, He Nan's tears rolled down involuntarily. Bai Yujing is prosperous and brightly lit, and he is well taken care of there. He has a pretty good job and even has a hut where he can stay. However, although this Xuanyang County is much deserted compared to it, the old courtyard is also due to the number of people. It has been uninhabited for many years, and there is less smoke and fire, and it is extremely lonely...
But this is my home, and almost every inch of blue bricks and red tiles can make me cry.
When he was on duty in the capital, He Nan would occasionally feel homesick; when he arrived at the county town, He Nan even excitedly invited the two of them to the best restaurant; today he headed north for a while and entered the county town. , He Nan was still filled with excitement; and it wasn't until he stood in front of his house that He Nan found that all his emotions had turned into fatigue and burnout - he just wanted to lie in his childhood sleep I had to squint quietly on the little bed for a while.
He Nan left everyone in the side hall alone, climbed the wooden ladder behind the room to the top of the main hall, sat down, then took out the black snake pipe in his arms, lit the tobacco and stuffed it into his mouth.
Although the ravines and tiles made him slightly uncomfortable, his mood at the moment was the most relaxed he had been in these days.
The top three civil servants of the empire and the personal disciple of Li Zhanchun, the head of the Shanhe Prefecture, the chief judge with a ruthless heart and tough methods, a rebellious young man who dared to bargain with the fifth princes and meet his opponents... No matter how popular he is outside, When he returned to this home, he seemed to have shed all his disguises, removed all his baggage, and turned into the young and green child he once was.
He Nan has always been afraid of heights. When he was a child, he once accidentally fell off a branch while climbing a tree. Fortunately, there was softer sand below so he was not seriously injured. However, the fear of heights is still deeply ingrained in his mind. In his heart. But only the tiled roof of this main hall does not bring him the slightest fear, but can give him great peace - perhaps because whenever he encounters any troubles, his parents will take him to sit on the roof for a while. Sit down, tell him fables, and use the characters and events in the stories to enlighten him.
At this time, he was holding a slender cigarette rod in one hand, and the other arm was pillowed under the back of his head. He lay down leaning against the ridge of the roof, staring at the moon that was getting rounder as the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and he couldn't help but feel sad in his heart. A trace of sadness - now he is no longer afraid of heights, and even has good Qinggong skills, but the person who encouraged him to climb to the roof time and time again, and who accompanied him to overcome his fear, is no longer there.
Two small streams of water slid down the ends of his eyes to his temples, but He Nan let them surge down until they wet his clothes.
Suddenly he heard a rustling sound behind him. He Nan quickly wiped away his tears and stood up quickly. It turned out that Yu Ruyi found herself on the roof, so she found the wooden ladder behind the house and was going up. climb.
This wooden ladder was already old and already fragile. Yu Ruyi stepped on the weak wooden step and let out an exclamation. Seeing the wooden steps break, He Nan jumped out, leaned down and grabbed Yu Ruyi's jade wrist, and pulled her out of the air.
"Huh... I was scared to death." After Yu Ruyi stood firm, she stroked her chest and took a long breath, "Thank you."
"It takes a little effort." He Nan grinned.
Yu Ruyi suddenly came in front of He Nan and observed He Nan's face through the moonlight. He Nan knew what the other person was looking at and quickly turned around and took a step back.
"Are you...crying again?" Yu Ruyi raised her eyebrows.
He Nan quickly brushed away the remaining tears with his hands and said hesitantly: "The smoke... is too choking."
Of course Yu Ruyi knew what he was trying to cover up with his words, but she did not ask further questions. Instead, she sat on the roof: "I have never seen a man cry before, but today I have seen you shed tears twice. ”
Just when He Nan didn't know how to respond to the other party, Yu Ruyi said again: "You are homesick... I was sent to Guanghan Palace when I was a child. It was really hard to practice martial arts there. I'm not afraid of hardship. , but every night I miss home, and I cry when I miss home. I’m afraid that my fellow classmates will laugh at me, so I cover my head under the quilt and cry secretly. My eyes are dry from crying, and I’m tired from crying. Then I slept on the wet quilt."
Only then did He Nan know that Yu Ruyi was actually a disciple of the Guanghan Palace, one of the nine major sects in the world, which only accepted girls. Then he thought that this girl actually cried and suffocated herself in the quilt. She was quite strong.
Just as he was about to say something, he was interrupted by Yu Ruyi, who was talking to himself: "Later I got used to it, and I seldom cried, but after being away from home for a long time, I still feel very sad."
"Everyone cries when they leave home. Why do you cry when you get home?" Yu Ruyi wrapped his arms around his knees and turned his head to look at He Nan, who was standing aside and crying in the wind.
The answer has already emerged in He Nan's mind - this is my home, but I have no family anymore.
But he never spoke like this. He was afraid that he would collapse in an instant, so in the end he slowly uttered a few words and pointed at the courtyard: "It's empty here..."
Yu Ruyi lives in a large and prosperous family, so she cannot fully sympathize with He Nan's mood. She also dare not imagine what would happen if her home became so deserted, but she can understand He Nan. mood, so I didn’t bother him anymore.
He Nan lay next to Yu Ruyi. Through her words, he vented a lot of his own emotions, and his mood became better, and he fell asleep unconsciously.
The two of them sat and lay down on the roof. Yu Ruyi used the moonlight to look at He Nan, who was sleeping peacefully, and suddenly thought that he was completely different from his corpse-like sleeping appearance before.
After a while, He Nan shivered in the cold wind, woke up in a daze, and found that the roof was really crowded - Yan Chunlai and Wei Kui also sat on it.
"Second brother, Old Wei...why did you come up too?" He Nan rubbed his eyes, "When did you come up?"
Yan Chunlai and Wei Kui were like two generals, He Nan, answering He Nan's questions one by one.
"Seeing that you were in a bad mood, I thought I would come up and keep you company."
"Not long after you fell asleep, almost an hour has passed now."
"Oh..." He Nan scratched his head, perhaps feeling a dull pain from the wind, "The wooden ladder is broken, how did you two climb up?"
Yan Chunlai curled his lips: "I taught you all your Qing Gong, why can't I get better?"
He Nan realized belatedly that he could reach the roof with Qinggong. It was the emotion and habit that made him climb up the ladder behind the house like he did when he was a child.
"Me..." Wei Kui scratched his head but stared at the eaves.
He Nan followed Wei Kui's gaze and found that a piece of the eaves of his roof had collapsed. His expression was distorted for a moment: "You...couldn't you have jumped up by holding on to the eaves?"
Wei Kui nodded silently, showing a ashamed expression.
He Nangang wanted to take this opportunity to laugh at Wei Kui, but found that the two men had been looking at him with suppressed laughter, and also at Yu Ruyi behind him. As soon as he turned around, he met Yu Ruyi's cold expression.
Yu Ruyi stretched out a finger and pointed at the hem of her red dress. He Nan trembled when he saw the stains on the hem.
When it's cold, people will involuntarily move closer to warm places. He Nan squirmed and clung to Yu Ruyi's side in his sleep, drooling all over the corner of Yu Ruyi's skirt.
He Nan, who knew he was in the wrong, lowered his head and did not dare to look at Yu Ruyi's sharp, murderous eyes, but Yu Ruyi put her hand in front of He Nan: "Take me down."
