I'm still so majestic

Fu Zhihuai walked over quickly: "When did you come? Is there something urgent?"

With a smile on his face, he could see that he was in a good mood.

"I've been here not long ago." Yan Ji smiled, "It's been a few days since I've been free, so I wanted to come out and have a look. I passed by and saw that you weren't there, so I went to visit my uncle. There was nothing to do."

"That's a coincidence. In fact, I originally wanted to invite you to come and talk about it." Fu Zhihuai smiled: "I happened to have a new prescription for making wine. Although it is not peach blossom wine, it is also a taste that has never been seen in the capital. It’s rare for you to come here once, do you want to try it?”

Yan Ji's eyes lit up, and she subconsciously looked towards Xie Wenzhuo.

He is now under extremely strict supervision by Xie Wenzhuo, and he didn't feel relieved a few times before. He has no face to think about the "punishment" after being drunk.

Xie Wenzhuo suddenly caught his gaze, was taken aback for a moment, then nodded with a smile.

Fu Zhihuai took their movements into his eyes, and his eyes darkened.

The censer in the corner burns pear wood, the smoke curls up and the smell is elegant.

Fu Zhihuai warmed the wine on the stove, and the aroma of the wine soon spread around, Yan Ji sat down opposite him: "It smells very good."

"It tastes better." Fu Zhihuai put the wine glass on, "I just don't know if it suits your taste. After all, you are not used to being served, and you are too picky."

Yan Ji snorted and glanced at him with raised eyebrows.This glance fell into Fu Zhihuai's eyes, and the latter was suddenly stunned, as if he had returned to many years ago, when he and Yan Ji were cooking wine and bickering under the peach blossoms, and Yan Ji would always raise his eyebrows to look at him when his words fell, The tails of the eyes were slightly raised, and there was a hint of half anger and half coquettish in the eyes.

It's exactly the same as that glance just now.

There was already steam in the wine stove, faintly, as if the room was enveloped in fog.

"Ming Cheng, what's the matter?" Yan Ji saw him in a daze, and opened his mouth softly.

Fu Zhihuai came back to his senses, saw Yan Ji and Xie Wenzhuo sitting opposite each other, and the bitterness that had been forcibly suppressed in his heart suddenly came back.

Not the same.

At that time, Yan Ji was just his own Yan Xiaojiu, but now there is someone else by his side.

The good mood he had just seen Yan Ji just now was gone.

Fu Zhihuai held the wine glass with his hands down, turned his gaze to the wine stove, his lips twitched a few times, and finally fell silent.Yan Ji sat opposite him and looked over, Fu Zhihuai's face was mostly blurred by the steam from the wine stove, but the trembling of his lips was very clear in the hazy surroundings.

Yan Ji knew that Fu Zhihuai had something to say to him.

The water vapor in front of him became more dense, like a white mist, completely blocking his vision.

Yan Ji turned to look at Xie Wenzhuo: "Wen Qing, I suddenly want to eat chestnut cakes on Baima Street, can you buy some for me?"

Xie Wenzhuo nodded with comprehension and understanding in his eyes: "...OK."

Yan Ji smiled at him, watched him get up and go out the door.

At this time, the wine in the wine stove was already boiling, and the aroma of wine was everywhere. Fu Zhihuai filled the wine glass, and Yan Ji took a sip: "The taste is very good, you really have a hand in making wine."

Fu Zhihuai hummed.

Yan Ji sighed inwardly, put down his wine glass, then looked towards the other end of the remaining mist, and said directly: "Mingcheng, do you have something to say to me?"

Fu Zhihuai stopped holding the wine glass suddenly.

The wind outside the house blew in through the gaps in the doors and windows, and the smoke lingered a few times and slowly dissipated. One second before the surroundings completely recovered, Fu Zhihuai clenched his fingers tightly and put back all the hesitation on his face: "Yes."

He stood up and walked to the door of the study on the left: "Yan Xiaojiu, come in."

Naturally, what Fu Zhihuai wanted to show Yan Ji was not the study, but a dark room in the study.

This dark room is different from the usual dark room like Yan Zhou's. It is not used to do some shady things, but they used to be the place where Miyagi ghosts hid when they ran out of the imperial city when they were upset.

Yan Ji lowered his head.

After the incident last year, although Fu Zhihuai was no different from the past on the surface, since then he has stopped talking about the past with him, and there has been a lot of estrangement in getting along with him on weekdays.Seeing his struggle, Yanji felt uncomfortable, but this kind of thing can't be forced, and he can only wait for everything to get better slowly.

But now, everything has not changed for the better, but Fu Zhihuai brought up the past again.

After struggling to the end, Fu Zhihuai still couldn't get out.

The two entered the dark room one after the other. It was very dark inside. After the door was closed behind them, they couldn't see their fingers.

Yan Ji hadn't been here for many years, standing still, Fu Zhihuai seemed to come here often, walked to the corner in the dark and lit a lamp, and the room suddenly lit up.

The surroundings became clear, Yan Ji looked up and was stunned.

There are bookshelves on all four walls of the room, and the shelves are full, but they are not books, but many miscellaneous old things.

Old masks, half-torn paper kites, glorious sugar figurines, dry bamboo and wood, yellowed graffiti... many, many things he bought or liked with Fu Zhihuai before.

Yan Ji's mood suddenly became heavy, and he vaguely realized Fu Zhihuai's intention.

He turned his head, Fu Zhihuai met his eyes, for a long time, smiled, reached out to take off the old mask in front of him, and gently stroked the surface with his fingers.

"Do you still remember? This is the first year we met. On New Year's Eve, there were fireworks in the imperial city. We sneaked out together to play with the mask we bought at a street stall. We took it to see the entire capital that night, fireworks and masks. , are all very beautiful.”

Yan Ji didn't know how to speak.

Fu Zhihuai didn't seem to want to get his reply, still smiling, he put the mask back and replaced it with a sugar figure: "This is the second year we have known each other, you were sick in the early spring of that year, and you drank medicine for many days. The first thing after recovery is to pester you and me to buy candied haws.”

"But that day the candied haws were gone, and there were sugar figurines next to them. We bought them separately. You thought mine looked better, so you exchanged it with me. This is the one you disliked at the time. You didn't think it was worth it at the time. Look at it now. Look, it's really not very pretty."

"This." Fu Zhihuai took down the paper kite again, "It was the spring of that year, when someone put paper kites on the outskirts of the city, and you thought they were not good-looking outside, so you insisted on making one for you. It took us nearly a month to tie it up. You like it very much, and you put it away almost every day, but then it broke and couldn’t fly, so I put it away.”

"As for this, it's a recipe for peach blossom wine. You like to drink it, so I begged someone to give me the recipe. It took me three months to ask for the recipe, and three months to learn how to make it, but luckily the results are good, at least You didn't dislike it."

"and this……"

"..."

Fu Zhihuai's voice was very soft, and he took down the things on the bookshelf one by one, told the history, stroked it gently with his fingers, his face and eyes were full of memories and nostalgia.He remembers everything and cherishes everything, and when he mentioned the joy at that time, his voice was tinged with tenderness. The past passed from Yanji's ears to his heart, and it was worn away like sand and stones, feeling regretful and painful.

The surroundings are very quiet, there is no wind, and the lights in the corner have never shaken.

The things on the bookshelf were taken down and put back one by one by him, and the past was slowly talked about from the beginning to the end. When there was only one thing left on it, Fu Zhihuai's voice paused for a moment, his breathing was a little heavy, and then he lifted the hand, took it down firmly.

It is a dry bamboo tree.

"This bamboo is the year when I became a phase." Fu Zhihuai's eyes became softer, "At that time, the first emperor wanted to promote me to a phase, but I was used to being free, and I was unwilling and unable to refuse, so I went to find him. I missed you. That day, in order to make me happy, you ran wildly with me in the heavy rain, and ran everywhere in the capital."

"But I don't know, you're still sick." Fu Zhihuai's voice became a little hoarse and a little low: "You had a high fever that night and fell into a coma. That's why I pulled you back from the gate of hell."

"The day you woke up from the fever, my father took me to the Xuanjing Palace. When he saw you, he became very angry and hit me with a piece of bamboo. You were still sick, lying on the bed weak I looked as weak as if a gust of wind could blow it away, but I didn't know where the strength came from, and when the bamboo and wood were falling on me, they rushed over and took my place."

With trembling fingers, Fu Zhihuai lightly touched Yanji's back: "I remember that it was here, right? There was a long red mark swollen and bleeding. I have never been afraid of anything since I was a child. I was afraid or felt sorry for someone, but looking at you at that time, I suddenly felt so distressed that I was about to die."

"You are good to me, and I am also good to you. We have traveled together for so many years, but...why..."

He stopped suddenly, and didn't say anything later.

But Yanji knew what he wanted to say.

Yan Ji clenched his fingers, watching him hide a lot of eyes that looked like abysses of emotion, with mixed feelings in his heart, clenched his fingers and remained silent for a long time, then gritted his teeth: "Mingcheng, there are some things that I didn't say in the past because I was reluctant. But now I must..."

Fu Zhihuai trembled when he heard his words, and suddenly looked him in the eyes: "Don't say it."

"..." Yan Ji avoided his gaze, "I must say, Mingcheng, I have known you for more than ten years, whether it is..."

"say no more!"

Before the next words were spoken, Fu Zhihuai, who had been very soft from the beginning to the end, suddenly roared hoarsely. Yanji was startled, and then suddenly heard a crackling sound. He lowered his head and saw the thick wrist in Fu Zhihuai's hand. The bamboo wood has been broken, and the hands are covered with blue veins. The bamboo thorns on the broken surface burst open, piercing deeply into the palm of the hand under force, and the blood spread instantly.

Fu Zhihuai suddenly didn't feel the pain in the palm of his hand, stared at him with a pair of black eyes, and said hoarsely: "I said it, don't say it."

The heart that had been hardened just now could not be hardened under such eyes no matter what.

"Okay, I won't say anything." Yan Ji looked at his hand, took a deep breath, and carefully held the bamboo in his hand, "Can you let it go first?"

Fu Zhihuai remained motionless, blood slid down his palm, and the bamboo and wood were stained a dark red little by little.

Yan Ji looked at it, feeling very anxious in his heart. When he was at a loss what to do, his hand suddenly became heavy.

It was Fu Zhihuai who let go.

Yan Ji heaved a sigh of relief, and took Fu Zhihuai to the study to hastily bandage him, and then ordered the steward to invite the doctor.Fu Zhihuai didn't speak the whole time, just looked at him, and finally said in a low voice: "I... didn't think so."

"I know." Yan Ji sighed in his heart, "But Mingcheng, you have to be clear, there are no shoulds or shouldn'ts in many things, step by step to today, I have no regrets, and I don't plan to take a different path again .”

Fu Zhihuai looked at him quietly, for a long while, closed his eyes: "I'm tired... I know, you must be tired after you've been out for a long time today, right, so stop talking and go back."

He murmured repeatedly: "Stop talking..."

Yan Ji looked at his pale face, and finally took back the words in his heart: "...Okay."

They didn't talk anymore after that, Yanji felt uncomfortable, and when the chief steward brought the doctor over, he left the prime minister's mansion.

It was already dark outside, and there was no one around, Yan Ji walked across the street corner alone, and suddenly saw a person standing in front of him, wearing a green dress and a white hairpin, with warm and restrained eyes.

He walked over quickly, reached out to touch Xie Wenzhuo's clothes, it was cold, and he had stood here for a long time.

Yan Ji frowned: "It's so cold outside, why didn't you go back?"

"I didn't wait for you, don't worry." Xie Wenzhuo smiled, stretched out his hand, still holding the chestnut cake in his hand, "It's a pity that it's already cold, so I have to go back and steam it...Your complexion is not very good, Fu Xiang messed with you." Are you happy?"

"...It doesn't count." Yan Ji shook his head, "Let's go back."

"Okay." Xie Wenzhuo stopped asking, held Yan Ji's hand, walked forward a few steps and then smiled back, "However, we are not going back now."

"It's home."