The grass grows and warblers fly, and the willows are drunk with smoke. Perhaps it was because of Lichuan that it was already June, but the weather in Zhennan was still as warm as spring.
Beside a river embankment in Lichuan, it seems that the beautiful scenery up and down the river is captured - green grass, lush woods, orioles, and colorful fallen flowers. The sparkling river water reflects the bright scenery on the shore. The fish jump out of the water, causing ripples. The golden sunlight in the river is shattered. It is a scene full of vitality. It is a scenery that the poet will be intoxicated by when he sees it.
It's a pity that the children beside the river embankment were not at all happy to enjoy the scenery and have an outing, and they were quarreling fiercely.
One of the boys was dressed in luxurious silk and had a square jade sign around his neck. He was pointing at the two girls and shouted: "Unfair! Unfair! The two of them put blades on the kite. Knocked our kite down!"
Among the two girls, the younger one is pretty and has neat bangs. She was holding the kite string in her hand, and her eyes seemed to be looking at the boy, but if she looked closely, she could only see her sister. After looking at it for a long time, she pulled the string of the kite and looked up at the kite, ignoring the noise around her.
The boy misunderstood, thinking that the little girl was looking at him shyly, and couldn't help but smile sheepishly.
The older girl had her hair tied up high and was dressed in a beautiful red Hufu with small sleeves, which reflected the sun and made her look dazzling. She held the kite and looked at the jumping young man proudly.
"Young master of the Jia family, don't think I don't know. Your kites are also hung with wood blades just to deal with us. Now that we have won, you will jump in a hurry. If your kites knock ours down Yeah, I think you won’t even fart.”
"Also," the older girl pulled the little girl behind her, her smile a little dangerous, "If you continue to stare at Xiao Yu with a leering look, I will pluck out your eyeballs."
Young Master Jia was ashamed and annoyed when she said this. His face turned red, and the jade plaque trembled with his body: "Vulgar! Zheng Chen, you! You are too vulgar!"
Zheng Chen sneered, ignored him, and turned to look at the kite in the sky.
Next to the huge river embankment, there were only two kites flying high, one with a lifelike phoenix painted on it, majestic. Colorful; the other was almost unrecognizable as a bird, and was dirty in color, like a twisted, plucked chicken.
Seeing that Mr. Jia was speechless by Zheng Chen, a young lady from the Chen family dressed in gold and silver held her own kite and stood up unhurriedly:
"Zheng Chen, there's no need to be so fussy, right? Think about it, how bad would it be to win the game but lose the relationship?"
Zheng Chen didn't even look at her, he just pulled up the kite string and let the phoenix kite in his hand fly higher.
Seeing that Miss Chen had no intention of leaving, she said disdainfully: "What kind of relationship do I have with you? If you hadn't been provoking me every day and insisting on competing, I wouldn't have known you."
Seeing Zheng Chen fall into the trap, Miss Chen smiled triumphantly: "I'm not talking about us, I'm talking about you and your sister.
"The kite in your hand is so gorgeous, but she can only hold a tattered kite... Of course, I can't interfere in the affairs between you sisters. I can't control it."
Miss Chen saw Zheng Chen's mentality of protecting his cubs, but she stabbed him firmly.
After hearing this, Zheng Chen frowned and wanted to argue with Miss Chen. However, Miss Chen pretended to be "I have mastered the truth" and deliberately cheated, refusing to confront Zheng Chen. Even so, she said a lot of things to fan the flames.
Seeing that Zheng Chen was a little angry, a timid voice came from beside her.
"Sister Chen, I painted my sister's kite, and my sister also made mine for me." Twelve-year-old Zheng Yu said shyly, "Sister Chen, why is it so rare and strange? No sister in your family can draw it for you. A kite?”
Miss Chen's mother died young, and her siblings were all born to her aunt, who was often used to vent her anger on.
Because of this incident, her father had lectured her countless times. Her younger brothers and sisters also treated her like a savage beast and refused to say a word to her.
Now that Zheng Yu pointed this out in front of everyone, Miss Chen felt a little embarrassed and shouted, "How dare you talk about my family's affairs!" She stretched out her hands with sharp nails to grab Zheng Yu.
Before her hand could touch Zheng Yu, she was stopped halfway by Zheng Chen.
"Oh, where did the dog paws come from?" Zheng Chen squeezed Miss Chen's hand, pretending to be puzzled, "Has Miss Chen ever raised a dog? I heard that good dogs don't bark, but leprous dogs like to bark everywhere. So what should you do if there is a barking dog that hurts people?"
Miss Chen's face turned pale with anger, but she knew she couldn't defeat Zheng Chen, so she threw her hands away angrily and turned away bitterly.
Zheng Chen looked at her back with a look of satisfaction on his face. She yelled a few more words "Secrets on raising a dog" to Miss Chen, and then she heard Zheng Yu exclaim.
She turned around -
Far away in the sky, her "phoenix" was cut off by Zheng Yu's kite. The majestic phoenix soared upwards, lost all strength and fell far away due to the wind.
"Sister," Zheng Yu's eyes were about to shed tears, "Our kite..."
Zheng Chen stared at the broken kite. The "golden phoenix" became smaller and smaller in her eyes until its beautiful outline could no longer be seen.
"It's okay, it's okay," Zheng Chen turned around and patted Zheng Yu on the head. "The kite flew away, just taking away the bad luck." She turned around and stood among a group of children and shouted:
"I announce! The winner of this kite competition is - Zheng Yu!"
The crowd dispersed, and Zheng Chen helped Zheng Yu roll up the kite and stuff it into the saddle.
"Xiao Yu, mount your horse!"
Zheng Yu obediently stretched out his hands, letting Zheng Chen pick her up from behind and put her on the horse easily.
"You mean you, I haven't seen you for three months, why are you still so light?" Zheng Chen shook his hand, pretending to be disgusted, "It's too light, the bones are hurting my hand."
Zheng Yu pursed his lips and smiled crookedly: "That's because I gave up all my flesh to my sister."
Zheng Chen laughed loudly and got on his horse.
She is tall, has long arms and legs, so it is easy to mount a horse. In addition, she was dressed in bright red, moved quickly and swiftly, and looked like a flying swallow, extremely chic and handsome.
Zheng Yu watched his sister mount the horse and applauded her with squinted eyes. Zheng Chen didn't want to accept this trick, so he laughed and fooled her: "Sit down!"
She reached out to hold the reins, held Zheng Yu in her arms, and galloped the horse.
The horse's hooves stepped across the rocky beach, walked across the grass, and entered a deep forest.
Are there any woods on this road?
Entering the woods, the surrounding temperature immediately dropped. Zheng Yu raised his head and looked up. The dense branches and leaves covered the sky and blocked the sun completely. She couldn't help but shudder and tugged on her sister's sleeve: "Sister, where are you?"
Zheng Chen stood up and looked around, a little surprised:
"I didn't know there was a place like this on the edge of Lichuan River."
Perhaps because he was afraid that Zheng Yu would be frightened, Zheng Chen quickly added: "But this is daddy's old horse. The old horse knows the way and will definitely be able to take us back."
Zheng Yu nodded silently and held onto Zheng Chen's clothes tightly.
Zheng Chen was also a little surprised in her heart, but she would never show it in front of her sister. At this time and place, the yin energy is too strong, and there are probably ghosts. When ordinary people encounter this kind of thing, they just want to ride their horses and run away from the place where this is right and wrong. However, Zheng Chen tightened the bridle of the horse and made the horse move forward slowly.
Sure enough, after the horse's pace slowed down, a rustling sound came from the woods ahead, which was the friction sound of a hidden weapon being withdrawn.
Now Zheng Chen was sure that someone had deliberately lured them into this forest. But she had no way of knowing the location, purpose, number, or means of the visitors, which made her somewhat anxious.
No, you can't be impatient. Zheng Chen tried hard to control his breathing - the people in the woods were waiting for her impatience, waiting for the moment when she couldn't hold her breath and was full of loopholes.
Zheng Chen didn't change his expression, and slowly stretched out an arm to touch the weapon in the saddlebags.
A gust of wind passed by, and Zheng Chen hurriedly pulled his hand back, but his fingertips were still scratched by the iron tool.
The strength of this person is extraordinary.
Unable to take out the weapons in the sash, the two of them became passive. Zheng Jian also hid a short sword in her sleeve. She secretly hoped that the weapon on the opposite side would not be much longer than hers, so that she could still fight.
The horse lowered its head and walked slowly forward. It shook its head in all directions, as if it was afraid of something. Zheng Chen also followed its head and looked left and right, his body tensed up, ready to deal with sudden attacks at any time. Zheng Yu huddled in Zheng Chen's arms, her beautiful black eyes full of worry. She leaned on Zheng Chen's chest and heard her sister's heart beating like a drum.
Seeing that the horse was about to walk out of the woods, Zheng Chen felt a little more relaxed and his posture on his hands was also a little slack.
At this moment, the horse suddenly let out a sharp neigh.
Before Zheng Chen could react, a curtain of blood suddenly splashed in front of her eyes. The bright red blood splashed on her body with a fishy smell. The horse kicked its hind hooves, and the front half of its body broke to the ground. Zheng Yu's hand was shaken. , let go of Zheng Chen's clothes, rolled off the horse, and fell to the bloody ground. Her tearful black eyes were still staring at Zheng Chen.
Zheng Chen was furious and jumped off the half-broken horse. Just as she was about to move forward, there was a golden sound in her ears - a long knife cut off her temple hair and was pointing at the side of her neck.
"Cough, cough, Han Ling, I'm a little thirsty, help me get the tea on the table."
"Han Ling?"
Han Ling was fascinated by what he heard and could not recover for a while. When he finally realized that Zheng Yu was calling him, he pretended to cough and cut off the water.
When he looked up, he met Zheng Yu's sightless gray-blue glass eyes.
He imagined what Zheng Yu called "black eyes" and sighed softly in his heart.
Zheng Yu drank the water slowly and handed the tea cup to Han Ling. Han Ling refilled her cup of hot tea. When he put down the cup, he saw Wang Xun standing at the door.
"Master Wang?"
Wang Xun smiled softly, swayed his waist, and walked gracefully into the house.
"Is Xiaoyu telling Aji's story?" She put the magenta jacket in her hand on Zheng Yu and said with a smile, "I want to listen too."
Han Ling pulled out a chair for her and sat at the desk.
Zheng Yu smiled gently and said:
"Then, I saw my sister pull out a sword from the blood-stained robe with lightning speed.
"She seems to have seen through the attack of the attackers, and is always one step ahead, making swords with swords. She also seems to have seen through the death door of every assassin, and has eliminated everyone with terrifying efficiency."
Tianyan! Han Ling thought secretly in his heart.
Zheng Yu seemed to hear his thoughts, staring at him with a pair of gray-blue eyes, and nodded gently.
"That's how we escaped from the woods."
Zheng Chen carried Zheng Yu on his back and kept talking to her along the way.
"Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu," she smiled weakly, "Did you have a lead weight tied to your body? Why did it suddenly become so heavy?"
To lighten the burden, she threw away her sword without hesitation. At this time, she walked forward step by step, without realizing that her legs were overwhelmed and were shaking.
Zheng Yu closed his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep. Zheng Chen nudged him twice and uttered a few more words:
"I...sister..."
Zheng Chen asked: "What?"
Zheng Yu rolled his head on his sister's back and rolled it into her ear:
"I am heavy...all because...my sister is stupid..."
Zheng Chen laughed angrily at her. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned around and said, "You are stupid. At this time, you still don't forget to quarrel with me."
Zheng Yu said something vaguely again, and Zheng Chen listened as she walked, oh, what she said was: "My sister is a bad chess player, a kitchen killer, and a kite genius..."
Zheng Chen listened to her mumbling on his back and said with a smile: "Okay, I am a bad chess player and a kitchen killer... You are not afraid that I will throw you into Lichuan."
Zheng Yu chuckled, and wrapped his two blood-stained snow-white wrists around Zheng Chen's neck, tightening it tightly.
Zheng Chen said: "So you can't throw it away?"
Zheng Yu nodded heavily and tightened his arms tighter.
Zheng Chen quickly begged for mercy: "Good Xiaoyu, stop it, I can't breathe anymore."
The two of them chatted and walked all the way until the sun was setting and twilight was closing, and they finally saw the door of their house in the distance.
Zheng Jingyi and his wife had been waiting in front of the door for an unknown amount of time. They were even more anxious when they saw that the lights were all lit but there was still no sign of their two daughters.
Zheng Chen's mouth was dry all the way. She swallowed and shouted: "Father! Aunt Lan!"
Zheng Jingyi and Lan Zhiqing turned their heads, their eyes about to burst.
They saw Zheng Chen, whose back was mostly stained red with blood, and Zheng Yu, who was covered in blood, walking toward them with trembling steps.
Lan Zhiqing hurriedly took a few steps forward to hold Zheng Yu down, and then held the shaky Zheng Jian in his arms. Zheng Jingyi asked a servant to boil hot water for the eldest and second ladies to wash themselves. Zheng Chen pushed Mrs. Lan away with all her strength and waved her hands to indicate that she was fine.
"My child has something to report." She staggered to Zheng Jingyi and knelt down in front of him. She had never been so serious on weekdays, which highlighted the importance of this matter.
Zheng Jingyi frowned, stroked his beard and said, "Speak."
Zheng Chen then told Zheng Jingyi everything about what happened in the woods. Lan Zhiqing handed Zheng Yu to the wet nurse who had taken her since she was a child, and took her to take a bath. When she heard this, her eyes were about to burst.
"Aji, do you know who they are?"
Zheng Chen shook his head: "I don't know."
Lan Zhiqing asked again: "Then where did you fight?"
Zheng Chen recalled: "In front of Sanhe Dam in Lichuan, about fifteen miles away, in a forest with lush foliage."
Lan Zhiqing and Zheng Jingyi looked at each other, both feeling shocked. They concealed their emotions and asked: "Such a sophisticated killer, how did you escape with Xiaoyu intact?"
Zheng Chen paused and said, "I...I saw what they did."
Before Lan Zhiqing could respond, Zheng Jingyi walked up to Zheng Chen first:
"You mean, you saw the next move of the person in front of you during the battle?"
"yes."
"Alone?"
Zheng Chen shook his head: "As long as I want to know whose name it is, I can know it."
Zheng Jingyi seemed frightened by her and couldn't help but take a few steps back. Lan Zhiqing supported him, secretly wondering about Zheng Chen's unprecedented bloodline.
"Okay, father knows." Zheng Jingyi forced himself to calm down and said, "Go down and take a shower, your body is covered with blood."
