Kaifeng Bistro

The moment the mask fell to the ground, Zhuo Zhuo sighed deeply: "Oh! It really is...it really is you. Brother Zhou, why did you do this!"

The others were silent, while Xu Gan withdrew his sword a bit.Tan Zhifeng stepped forward and wanted to help Zhou Yanjing up, but the other party sat up on the ground by himself.Zhou Yanjing looked down at his chest in a daze. The huge scar had disappeared, but his skin was rapidly turning into a gray color. He stretched out his hand and looked at his palm again. Black air emerged from his palm.

"Your Highness, kill me." He raised his head and looked at Xu Gan with pleading eyes.

"You killed A Yuan." Xu Yan looked at him sternly, "A life pays for a life, that's what it should be."

Tan Zhifeng stretched out his hand to him, and together with Zhuo Zhuo moved him to the base of the wall of the opposite room.Sitting there, Zhou Yanjing took a breath, looked at Tan Zhifeng gratefully, and asked him, "You guessed it was me, right?"

Tan Zhifeng nodded silently.Zhuo Zhuo couldn't help but asked Tan Zhifeng: "Zhifeng, how did you guess it?"

Xu Yan and Yi Yi also came over. Tan Zhifeng looked back at Xu Yan and said, "There are too many. In fact, I should have thought of it earlier, but I have been unwilling to believe it. Ever since I realized that Xu Yan's identity is unusual, I began to think that someone around him must be watching his every move, and when I learned about his past and where he came from from his memory, I guessed that the people who were with him must also be interested in him. The current life is well known, otherwise, our life would not be so peaceful, they must have grasped Xu Gan's movements, and know that there is something wrong with his memory. They... have been waiting silently."

"Who is this person? In fact, there are many customers in the tavern, but we can count those who are familiar with us with one hand. So... from this point alone, it is not difficult for you to guess that it is Brother Zhou."

Tan Zhifeng paused, and then said: "However, with the tense border war, the situation has become more and more urgent. The Song Dynasty or Xixia are both mired in the quagmire of war. It is finally time for the Liao Kingdom to act."

"So, things started to happen one by one—A Yuan...why did he find here suddenly? On the day of eating roasted meat, why did Brother Bai's steel knife suddenly disappear? Brother Zhou, I heard the conversation between you and Xu Gan that day. In the conversation, you said: 'Humayi is the north wind, and the bird's nest is the south branch.'..."

Zhou Yanjing smiled: "His Royal Highness replied to me: 'I heard Zheliu in this nocturne, who can't forget the love of hometown?', I think, after meeting A Yuan, he, he finally...remembered the original thing. .”

Tan Zhifeng looked at him and continued: "Brother Zhan said that he was drunk that day, I was very surprised, but today, the guards of the Lu family drank the tea you gave them, I can see that before leaving At that time, they were also a little drunk."

Zhou Yanjing sat up straighter and looked at Tan Zhifeng calmly. Under his torn front, the purple-black heart was beating, pumping that black, magma-like blood to every part of his body. , His body showed signs of stiffness and grayness little by little. Tan Zhifeng could see that he was slowly becoming like the two servants of the Dali Temple who were killed by A Yuan.

"Do you... have anything to say?" Tan Zhifeng asked him, "Your family, your daughter, they..."

"Thank you, Zhifeng." Zhou Yanjing smiled at him: "You are a good boy." He raised his hand and patted Tan Zhifeng's shoulder.Tan Zhifeng felt the coldness and chill coming from his palm. "I told you that there is a Zhuangzi outside Kaifeng City. Chen Qing knows the specific place, and I took him there. They live there... What I told you today is also true...my daughter, I like to eat the three fresh lotus flower cakes you made."

"Ah..." Listening to the faint music coming from Killing Pig Alley, he heaved a long sigh: "'The sound of someone's jade flute flying in the dark, scattered into the spring breeze and filled Luocheng. Who can't afford to hear the broken willows in this nocturne? Love in hometown? Zhifeng, when I left my hometown, I was about your age. Since then, I have never been back..."

As he was talking, he suddenly coughed, and a big mouthful of blood poured out of his mouth unstoppably, but he didn't raise his hand to wipe it, and continued to say intermittently: "Our people... are almost all taken away, But... the remaining two, I'm afraid they will soon become monsters like A Yuan. Yes... it was the night A Yuan died, an envoy from Xixia came to Kaifeng, and he turned them into Such... I... I was with you that day, I don't know who he is, but I know... he is a very dangerous person..."

"You, don't talk about it." Zhuo Zhuo saw that his mouth was bleeding continuously, his body was already covered with blood, he couldn't help but panic, ran into the room and brought a clean cotton cloth to wipe it for him, but Zhou Yanjing put it away Waving his hand: "No need, Miss Zhuozhuo. Let Your Highness and Zhifeng kill me quickly. I, I don't want to become a living dead like A Yuan."

Zhuo Zhuo looked back at Xu Gan. For the first time, she noticed that Xu Gan's hand holding the sword was trembling. Xu Gan slowly raised Kunwu, aiming at Zhou Yanjing's heart: "We will take good care of your family." He said, "We will tell them that you unfortunately lost your life in today's fire, and the rest, their food and clothing, you don't have to worry about it."

"I'm not worried." Zhou Yanjing said, "You...you have been a person who values ​​affection since childhood. It's just that you shouldn't have been born in an emperor's family!" After finishing speaking, he turned to Tan Zhifeng and said to him, "Zhifeng, After I die, you and Your Highness will leave Kaifeng and live a good life...his identity...cannot stay here..."

The blood he spit out became more and more thick, but at the end, the blood began to take on a faint black color. Tan Zhifeng had a feeling that the black heart produced new blood, and that blood replaced the blood. Real human blood, when this black blood started to flow in Zhou Yanjing's body, his life really came to an end.

"Actually," Zhou Yanjing murmured, "why would I want to do such a thing. When A Yuan died, he looked at me with wide eyes. Until now, I, I still remember his eyes. He also A poor child, but, but in this world, how many people can, can choose..."

Tan Zhifeng couldn't stand it anymore.He stood up and said to Xu Gan: "There is no other way, it's better...to do it."

Xu Gan nodded, and the Kunwu sword rested on Zhou Yanjing's chest, aiming at his chest that was still exuding purple-black mist, Zhou Yanjing turned his head, but even this movement was already very difficult for him up.He looked at Zhuo Zhuo who was at a loss holding a cotton cloth and said to her: "Miss Zhuo Zhuo, the song you sang today is very nice, your voice, your voice is as loud and clear as the girls on the grassland, you sing a song and send it to me." send me."

Zhuozhuo looked up at Tan Zhifeng in a daze, Tan Zhifeng looked at her, and suddenly remembered something, he asked Zhou Yanjing: "By the way, Brother Zhou, I have one more thing to ask you, you...why did you come here Take A Yuan away?"

"This..." Zhou Yanjing rested against the wall again, and replied, "I... I originally thought that because we kidnapped Lu Yijian's grandchildren, I, I wanted to exchange their lives for one, The opportunity to save our people and leave Kaifeng. Lu Yijian is old, and he should care about the safety of his grandchildren. He definitely doesn't want to take this risk... As for A Yuan, I want to take him away too ...the reason, I know that he and they were all turned into something inhuman by that Xixia man, but only A Yuan died and lived again, I want to take him back to Shangjing..."

Having said that, his voice was already very weak.Tan Zhifeng didn't ask any more questions.He turned around and said to Zhuo Zhuo: "Zhuo Zhuo, sing something for Big Brother Zhou."

"Sing... what to sing?" Zhuo Zhuo muttered to himself: "Zhifeng, I don't know..."

Tan Zhifeng sighed: "Just sing the requiem song you sang before... that part of 'Salvation'."

Zhuo Zhuo stood up and wiped away his tears, tried a few times, but the tone of voice was still a little strange, Tan Zhifeng stood up, retreated to her side, patted her arm lightly, then Zhuo Zhuo began to sing in a low voice, in her voice During the singing, Zhou Yanjing's eyes were completely closed, and the black mist spread along his neck and onto his cheeks. Xu Gan let out a long sigh, and stabbed the Kunwu sword towards his chest. This time, the whole sword was bright. The golden light that was raised all flowed towards the tip of the sword, impacting the ever-expanding and beating heart made of black air. The thick black mist and the bright golden light entangled to swallow each other and drive each other away, like two The terrifying monster kept fighting in Zhou Yanjing's body, Zhou Yanjing opened his eyes suddenly, but his eyes no longer had the usual expression, his eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, and his no longer flexible body could Vibrating against the wall.Tan Zhifeng, Zhuo Zhuo, and Yi Yi gathered their spiritual power at the same time, and three rays of light of different colors poured into the Kunwu sword, but suddenly they seemed to encounter some obstacles, and were ejected from the Kunwu sword. At the same time, he took two steps back unsteadily.Xu Gan said in a deep voice: "There is no need to do this, it will be over soon."

Sure enough, as he said, golden rays of light suddenly shot out from Zhou Yanjing's chest, like the rays of the rising sun passing through the clouds, and sprinkled to every corner of the earth. Everyone's hearts were greatly shaken and shocked. Just like the day when Ying Long's soul fully awakened in Xu Gan's body, they felt the infinite majesty and the inspiration of some powerful and sacred power, and the fear in their hearts and the sadness of parting with Zhou Yanjing just now were swept away in an instant. As for Kong, only endless awe echoed in their bodies.

"This is the power of the ancient sword." Yi Yi said softly.He and Zhuo Zhuo put their hands on their chests and bowed to the golden light.Tan Zhifeng stared intently at the place where the light disappeared. Zhou Yanjing and the cloud of black air were gone, and there was only a handful of faint ashes on the ground.The warm mid-spring night breeze blew, and the ashes were lifted by the wind, and disappeared into the quiet night sky.