Mu Mansion in Yucheng is very lively today. People kept coming in and out of the front yard, bringing ebony gift boxes wrapped in red silk and leaving with auspicious words of "prosperous military fortune". As soon as the sun reached noon, the number of maids in the front yard changed several times. Some lively and courageous ones sneaked into the backyard when no one was paying attention and complained to the servants in the backyard.
"It's not because of the 'Martial Arts Conference'." The little maid Qingni moved her muscles exaggeratedly, with a look of boredom and pride on her face, "I also opened my eyes today, such as the red corals of the North Sea and the animal bones of the Desert West. The eagle...is so big that it hurts my hands to hold it!"
Most of the servants in the backyard are coolies who carry bricks and chop firewood. At this moment, those who carry water, chop wood, and sweep the courtyard are also very busy. Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Qingni stamped her feet angrily, buried her head in her arms, and started playing with the ants on the ground.
The sky is clear in spring, and flowers are in full bloom. The backyard is filled with daylilies, roses, and camellias. Although they are not rare varieties, the landscape in full bloom is full of colors and fragrant. Ants love sweets the most, and they form a long and thin line from the flower stamens to the ant nest. Occasionally, a worker ant is stepped on by a servant, and the subsequent ant colony will not stop, but will bypass it and continue moving forward.
After playing for a long time, she felt a little tired, so she lay on her knees and yawned. When she looked up, a servant wrapped in a white turban, holding a broom, came to her side gently and said with a smile: "Xiao Qingni, tell me what else you have seen today?"
Qingni's eyes rolled up: "There are so many! Let me tell you, in addition to those rough warriors who came to give gifts today, there is also a handsome young man wearing a particularly elegant silk robe and shaking a fan! That young man is right at first sight. The gifts brought by the big shots were also extraordinary. They were eighteen luminous pearls from Meichuan, each one as big as my fist. The master ordered us to hand over the luminous pearls to Aunt Feng, and asked all of us to escort those beads. You Tell me, who is this young man?"
The fair servant frowned in distress, turned the broom in a circle with rough fingers and said: "Oh, Meichuan was flooded the year before last, and the number of luminous pearls produced in the past three years has dropped sharply. If you want to sell eighteen pearls at a time, it must be ——A wealthy family in a wealthy family.”
Qingni nodded: "He must be a powerful person, maybe the next leader of the martial arts alliance? I have never seen anyone invited by the master to eat in the main house, but this time he invited the young master to stay several times."
The servant chuckled and said, "Qingni, how long have you been in the main house?"
Qingni thought for a while: "One year...no, two years. What's wrong?"
The servant said: "I have been here a few years longer than you. The matter of staying as a guest actually happened once three years ago..."
Before he could finish speaking, there was a rush of footsteps in the corridor. Qingni's face turned pale, and before she could stand up, she heard a thin female voice penetrate the grass curtains on the several-story corridor: "Qingni! Where did you go with your little hooves? You are just hiding here. !" Qing Ni shivered all over and hurriedly knelt down on the ground. The hurried woman walked up to Qingni with a group of maids, glared at her fiercely, raised her head, but her expression changed with respect, and said to the fair servant Fu Shen: "Han Langjun, Master, please come and change with me."
Han Ling also bowed to the woman. When he lowered his head, he happened to see Qing Ni looking up at him in fear. He raised his head, smiled at the woman in front of him and said: "Aunt Feng, don't be offended, Qingni is here to pay me back. Qingni? You are here to pay me back the money I borrowed last time, right?" You lent me two taels of silver last ten days."
Qingni knelt on the ground and instinctively nodded along with Han Ling's words, but she couldn't afford two taels of silver. In desperation, she crawled to Aunt Feng on her knees and looked at her pleadingly.
Aunt Feng knew that Han Ling wanted her to let Qingni go. She closed her eyes impatiently, took out two taels of silver from her sleeve and handed it to Qingni. Qing Ni burst into laughter for a moment, turned around and stuffed the money into Han Ling's hand. When she saw Han Ling's face, she couldn't help but wince.
Han Ling thanked Qingni with a smile, bowed to Aunt Feng, and then left with her.
Qingni lost her strength and fell to the ground. When she turned around, she saw people in the backyard lowering their heads and busying themselves, as if they were used to this kind of thing. She looked down at her sleeves, tears falling unconsciously.
Qingni in this room lowered her head and shed tears, while Han Ling in the other room followed Aunt Feng's footsteps and walked all the way around to a small courtyard room behind the main house.
As soon as Fang stepped into the courtyard gate, Han Ling felt his skin tightening. He instantly realized that someone was watching around him, so he pretended to be leisurely and looked at the yard in front of him. The yard is small and the vegetation is withered. The house is neat and shabby. There is a large mahogany bed in the corner. There is a package on an old wooden table in the middle. After opening it, there is a complete set of moon white clothes dotted with indigo. The tailoring is exquisite and the fabric is expensive. It was almost scratched by Han Ling's rough fingers. Aunt Feng took several maids out without saying a word, and the people watching around the yard also retreated further away. Han Ling sneered in his heart, but remained calm on the outside. He took off his turban and began to take off the servant's rough brown shorts.
When he was undressing to only his middle coat, he heard a commotion outside the door.
Han Ling approached the door and gently pushed it open a crack. He wanted to hear clearly, but found that the person who came had used voice transmission. He had no choice but to sit back at the table, but he couldn't help but worry that something serious had happened.
Not long after, Aunt Feng knocked on the door and whispered: "Mr. Han, something unexpected happened. You don't have to go to tonight's banquet. Please be prepared, Mr. Han, for the martial arts competition tomorrow. You appear."
Han Ling glanced outside and saw that Aunt Feng was the only one outside the door, and the feeling of oppression around him disappeared, which meant that he and Aunt Feng were the only two people in the courtyard now. This opportunity has not presented itself in six years.
Han Ling stood up, moved to the door, and said with a low smile: "The adults from the Imperial City, do you look down on me, or do you look down on your master Mu Yuntong?"
Aunt Feng said nothing and Fu Shen left. Han Ling pushed open the door with one hand, stared at her back and said, "Aunt Feng, no, senior Feng Cheng, I only ask this for the last time: Is your loyalty to Mu Yuntong or my father?"
Feng Cheng stopped and said in a calm voice: "My allegiance is to the leader of the martial arts alliance." She walked out of the threshold of the small courtyard and added softly: "Aling, leader Han has passed away for seven years."
She heard Han Ling sneer behind her and said, "Senior, you are really considerate to me. Remember that I have no inner strength and can't hear the sound transmitted into the secret." Feng Cheng sighed and turned around, only to see that Han Ling had closed the room. Door. She shook her head slightly and left the courtyard.
Han Ling returned to the room, took off his hakama, walked to the edge of the bed and sat down. He was very familiar with this bed. It was the only piece of furniture left from the Han Mansion in Meichuan. When he was young, his mother often hugged him and sang songs on this bed. Those tunes still fall into my dreams often. In the dream, one second, my mother gently waved her small fan, and the next second, my mother's figure was torn apart and blurred in blood.
Han Ling's hand touched a crack on the side of the bed, where the words "Meichuan Han Ling" were once engraved. The words were engraved by his father when Han Ling was learning to write. When this bed was brought to Yucheng, Han Ling was no longer the famous genius boy in Meichuan. These four words were naturally cut out, leaving only a scar that would never heal.
It all happened when he was fourteen years old.
That year, his father Han Boli was still the leader of the martial arts alliance, and they were still in Meichuan. In Han Ling's memory, it was a sunny spring. Not long after his birthday, the late spring flowers were blooming. April roses hang down from the wall, pink and white, attracting countless passers-by to stop and linger. Han Ling crawled through the roses in front of his house, carefully opened the door and slipped in. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his mother behind the door grabbed him and held him in her arms with a smile.
"Ling'er, are you going out to play again?" His mother, Zhuo Yuhuai, pulled him to the rocking chair in the courtyard, sat down, stretched out her arms, rubbed Han Ling's head, and said with a smile, "You have to remember to take care of yourself. Don’t forget your luggage, our family is moving to Langya. Remember to bring everything you want to take with you. We will set off earlier. We will arrive first, and the servants at home will come later. "
"Langya is to the north of Lanhe River. The scenery in Hebei is extremely beautiful. Your child hasn't seen it yet?"
Han Ling was pulled by his mother to the pear tree in the courtyard and nodded vigorously. He saw the snow-white petals falling on his mother, and thought that Hebei might not have such a scene, and couldn't help but ask: "Can I bring anything?"
His mother raised an eyebrow at him and nodded.
Han Ling said in surprise, "Is it okay if I bring Zhuchen and Shisong?"
His father had just loaded up the car and came in from the door holding Han Ling's younger brother Han Jie, followed by his first disciple Mu Yuntong. Hearing this, Han Boli laughed and hugged Zhuo Yuhuai and Han Ling. He scratched the nose of Han Jie in his arms and said: "This child Chen'er is indeed a rare martial arts genius. If Lao Xu hadn't been reluctant to part with her, I would have wanted to take her with me. As for Shi Song, Ah Ling, you don't have to Worry, your Uncle Shi said that they will come to live in Langya soon."
Han Ling was overjoyed and hugged his father tightly back. Han Boli stroked the beard on his chest, put down Han Jie, and picked up Han Ling.
Zhuo Yuhuai ordered Mu Yuntong to take Han Jie into the house to change clothes. She lightly hit Han Boli with one hand and said, "My son is already fourteen. Old Han, you still treat him as a child? I see you are about the same age as your son."
Han Boli looked at Zhuo Yuhuai with a smile, holding Han Ling tightly in his big hands and spinning around in the air. He put his head on Han Ling's forehead and laughed loudly: "Huainiang, I am happy from the bottom of my heart to be able to see the three children of 'Meichuan Sanxiu' together! Besides, our family Your son values affection and righteousness. His mother has taught him well, and I am happy for him." Zhuo Yuhuai glared at him, then also shook his silk fan and laughed.
Aunt Feng Cheng, the housekeeper at home, was walking out of the main room with Han Qian, the younger sister of the Han family. Han Qian could not walk yet, and his calves were swaying as he walked, muttering: "Aunt, mom! Dad, brother. , Hug!" She was wearing a newly cut rose-red spring dress and tiger-head shoes made by Zhuo Yuhuai. Her soft hair was tied into two small braids with a red rope by Aunt Feng Cheng. At this time, Han Qian's two A small red "goat horn" is sticking up next to her pink and soft face, making her look as cute as a Fuwa doll in a painting. The laughter of the family is so warm, and the courtyard filled with the fragrance of flowers is full of joy and happiness.
The end of this happiness is on the way to Langya.
There was a slight chill in the spring night. Han Ling opened his eyes and looked around. Red blood was dripping from the green grass blades, and the tree trunks he could see were splashed with ocher. He tried to move his arm, but he felt a cold, stiff little hand.
It was Han Qian's left hand. The palm of his hand was connected to the half-severed arm, which was abandoned on the woodland on the outskirts of Yucheng like a dead branch.
