This night was not a sleepless night for Liu Ru.
After all, she was really too sleepy. When Su Ziye woke her up the next day, she still couldn't recall what she had dreamed.
Even if the dream was full of blood, she couldn't remember it at all.
The next day's breakfast was still done by Su Ziye. Even though Liu Ru had the intention, she really couldn't get up. The only drawback was that the breakfast this time was not beef soup.
Freshly baked pancakes are paired with golden and steaming poached eggs, and smoked pork slices exuding an attractive aroma are served on the plate, with snow-white warm milk in a transparent cup on the side.
A very simple but very pleasing breakfast.
Liu Ru looked at Su Ziye who was eating pancakes: "Why not beef soup?"
"It's delicious, but you can't eat it every day." Su Ziye raised his head and said with a smile, "Eat it, and set off after eating."
"If it's delicious, why don't you eat it every day?" Liu Ru asked.
She really wants to eat it every day.
Eat until you don’t want to eat anymore.
"Because there are many delicious things in this world. No matter how delicious the food is, you will get tired of it. You will regret it when you are tired of it, right?" Su Ziye smiled lightly and said: "Eat it, let's finish it Set off."
Su Ziye didn't say where he was going.
But of course Liu Ru will not forget it.
She sat across from Su Ziye, and then picked up the pancake, which was still a little hot.
Take one bite.
…
…
After breakfast, they set off. Su Ziye didn't have any luggage to pack, and Liu Ru came here alone, so how the two of them arrived at this inn was how they left.
Su Ziye has never changed, but Liu Ru seems to have been completely transformed.
Liujiatun is not far from this small town, only about forty or fifty miles away. If it were in the hinterland of the empire, it could be said to be within a short distance, but this is the frontier of the empire. Not only is the sky high and the emperor is far away, but also There is no cockcrow for a hundred miles.
The very existence of this frontier town was because it was home to an imperial garrison.
The mountain road is rugged.
The two of them were silent all the way.
Su Ziye walked very fast, and was even better at walking these rugged and steep mountain roads than Liu Ru, who was used to walking on mountain roads. At the end of the mountain road, the small village was already in sight.
"Have you ever heard of the Qingshan bandits?" Su Ziye suddenly turned around and asked.
"Qingshan bandits?" Liu Ru was stunned: "Are you talking about those mountain bandits? They came to our village several times to exchange for some food, pigs and ducks."
"As expected." Su Ziye nodded: "This is the first place I arrived last night."
"Is there anyone alive in the village?" Liu Ru asked with a little hope.
"No more." Su Ziye shook his head: "Then I went back and looked for that Tang En."
"Tang En?" Liu Ru didn't know the name at all.
"That slave trader." Su Ziye looked at Liu Ru: "He accepted you women from the imperial border guards for the price of a silver plate each, because there is no way to use women's heads to defraud them."
Liu Ru hummed slightly and said nothing more.
"You go down and have a look." Su Ziye said calmly: "Go to the village and visit your own home. This is your farewell, so I won't accompany you."
Liu Ru didn't want to go down.
But she promised Su Ziye that she would complete this matter as a task.
She pursed her lips slightly and walked down the familiar path.
The stream that ran across the village was still crystal clear, but Liu Ru could still smell the clear smell of blood in the moist smell of the unique water plants along the river.
She walked along the stream.
Then he stopped.
She saw a wooden stake.
A stake with a man on it.
A headless male corpse was nailed to a wooden stake. The wooden stake, as thick as the mouth of a bowl, penetrated his lower body, pierced his internal organs, and finally penetrated out from the break in his neck. A straw hat hung on the top of the wooden stake. , swaying lightly in the air with the wind.
Liu Ru bit her lip and covered her mouth tightly with her hands.
She stepped forward and tried to identify the man, but found nothing.
It is very difficult to identify a headless corpse.
She continued walking forward.
Then more stakes were seen.
These wooden stakes were erected outside every wooden house and hut, and a corpse was nailed to each wooden stake. Each corpse had no head on it, and an empty straw hat was placed on the wooden stake, which looked ridiculous and cruel.
Liu Ru still covered her mouth and walked forward in the forest with wooden stakes.
She finally came to the door of her house and saw the same hard wooden stake erected.
She saw her father also nailed to that wooden stake, his body hanging down weakly, his skin turned white by the cold. She stepped forward and quietly held her father's finger.
There was no sadness or anger in the girl's light blue eyes.
There is only the calmness suppressed under the deep sea.
She could vaguely guess the fate of her hometown, but she never expected that she would encounter such a fate.
These dead men could not even be buried in peace. They were humiliated by being pierced from beginning to end by such a wooden stake, standing here forever, quietly freezing, quietly decaying, and quietly passing through the wind. The rain blows and the birds peck at the food.
"This is the empire's method of dealing with the rebels. No one dares to remove these corpses from under the wooden pile. They will stand here for tens or even hundreds of years, until the wooden pile also decays. These corpses will forever shock them. Those who resist the empire, let them understand the price of resisting the empire and the fate they will face."
Su Ziye's lonely and calm voice sounded in Liu Ru's ears.
Liu Ru gritted his teeth: "Can I bury my father?"
"You can, but it's not necessary." Su Ziye replied quietly.
"You can move forward and remember this village completely in your mind. Only by remembering this place can you know that one of the greatest meanings of your existence in this world is to not let such stupid and cruel things be repeated again. countless times."
Liu Ru stood there, finally reached out and took off the straw hat on his father's head.
She put the straw hat on her head.
Then the girl continued walking forward.
The front is bland and samey.
The same wooden pile, the same corpse, the same straw hat, the same sadness.
Until Liu Ru came to the end of the village.
She finally saw something different.
She saw a kneeling soldier.
This kneeling soldier was wearing the dark gray armor that Liu Ru was familiar with. He was kneeling on the field outside the village, among the tender green wheat seedlings that had grown, like a dead sculpture.
Liu Ru looked at the soldier and continued to move forward without saying a word.
Behind the kneeling soldier, she saw more soldiers.
They knelt there neatly, like a triangle printed in a wheat field.
Liu Ru couldn't help but reveal a somewhat contemptuous smile.
If kneeling down can forgive all the mistakes, then I am willing to kneel down again and again.
But then, Liu Ru's smile froze at the corner of her mouth.
She had already arrived in front of the first soldier.
The soil beneath him was soaked with blood.
Two wooden stakes pierced his calves, nailing him to the spot in a kneeling posture, but the real fatal injury came from the third wooden stake, which was driven precisely from the back of his head. It pierced all the way along the spine, and finally nailed the soldier's upper body straight here.
Liu Ru continued to move forward without saying a word.
The second body, the third body, the fourth body...
She inspected them one by one. The person who did it was precise and brutal. All the soldiers were nailed to death in the field, kneeling in front of the village they slaughtered.
"Did you do all of this?" Liu Ru murmured.
At this moment, she felt very complicated.
There is both the pleasure of getting revenge and the exhaustion and loss of having the meaning of life taken away from you.
She had just secretly set a goal in her heart, but then the goal was completed by that person in a perfect way that she had never thought of.
"This cruel joy will eventually end cruelly." Su Ziye's voice sounded quietly, and he walked towards Liu Ru in the shadow of the trees.
"If I give you time to complete this revenge, then in five years you can come back here and complete everything I am doing now."
"But this is meaningless. The seeds of hatred will take root and sprout in your heart and slowly hold your heart. A life with only revenge is worthless. A gentleman takes revenge. It is not too late in ten years, but real revenge should be taken from morning to night. .”
"I have completed this revenge for you, which is both compassion and plunder."
"I said this would be a farewell."
"A true farewell is a farewell that doesn't take away a cloud, so I don't want you to leave with hatred."
"Everything here has ended. Your life is bounded by today, and it will be completely your own from now on."
Su Ziye had already arrived in front of Liu Ru.
There was no smile on the black-haired boy's face.
He just looked at Liu Ru face to face.
Liu Ru looked at the other person: "Do you want me to kneel down to you too?"
"If you think it's appropriate." Su Ziye said lightly.
Liu Ru didn't kneel down, she just moved forward.
She passed by Su Ziye, and at the moment she passed her shoulders, she reached out and grabbed Su Ziye's hand, and then pulled him forward.
"Aren't you going to Ye Ye College?" Liu Ru said quietly.
The girl wearing a straw hat looked ahead.
"I'll go with you."
