Moth

After entering the palace, he was taken directly to the imperial study by the head of the palace, Mr. Wan Quan. After waiting and waiting, Zong Yi himself never came. He was really bored, so he went to the bookshelf on one side and picked a few pictures to make up the main composition. Read the book to relieve boredom.

The furnishings in Zong Yi's imperial study had changed a lot. Mr. Wu Shan's paintings and calligraphy that hung all over the walls had been put away.Liu Changzhou was so bored that he walked around the room, heaved a sigh in his heart, knowing what this meant.

When hanging calligraphy and painting every day, seeing the traces of Lu Fuzhi, on the one hand, reminding myself to beware of the sudden rise of the army and the fall of power, on the other hand, it is also a confession.

I'm afraid that by now, Zong Yi has put aside and looked away from the things of that year.

On the way back, Liu Changzhou insinuated the main trends in the court at the moment, because as early as when he stepped into the Jiangbei Camp, the news from all channels of Guanyu Pavilion bypassed him.But Zong Yi at least left him a Fang Bing pen, so he didn't strip him all.

The news from the front line had already spread throughout the entire court, and the movement caused by it could be said to stir up a thousand waves with one stone.

There are mainly two voices in the hall.

Some people believe that Liu Changzhou, a little-known and unheard-of yellow-haired boy, does not have that much power to decide whether Daqing and Beidi want to establish friendly relations.Liu Changzhou didn't know the court, and he made a covenant with Parjiang "no crime in autumn" without authorization. In fact, he was acting on behalf of Yuezu and should be severely punished.

Another group of people think that if the general is not accepted by the emperor, in the long run, this kind of diplomatic relationship is a good way. Years of wars are not a small burden for the newly enriched treasury.

Naturally, there are still some people who fall with the wind.

But no matter which part of the people they are, they can't guess what the emperor thinks.In short, when the imperial decree was issued, it was "collaboration with the enemy and treason, dismissal and investigation".The group of people stopped now, and everyone quarreled for a long time, and no one stepped on the emperor's heart. They all knew that this was an unwarranted crime, but no one stood up and said something, because——Which one is Liu Changzhou? onion?

This person seemed to have fallen from the sky, without any foreshadowing, he appeared in everyone's sight.

Liu Changzhou was so bored that he sat on the emperor's desk full of memorials with a light jump.With his hands in his sleeves, he asked while shaking his legs: "Is your majesty slender again recently? Look at the busy day, it's getting dark, haven't you seen him yet?"

Wanquan was a smiling Maitreya Buddha, who was a roundworm in the stomach of the Long Live Lord. He was not surprised by Liu Changzhou's move, so he let him go, and even offered him a cup of tea very considerately.He knew in his heart that Liu Changzhou was a very peculiar existence in the imperial court. He had nothing to do with the Six Departments, and he didn't have an official title. Except for the emperor, he was hardly restrained by anyone.

It was only a year ago that Long Live God suddenly gave him a serious identity.

The tea on the table was cold, and Wan Quan was so discerning that he changed it for him. The long-time sagging of his old waist had already made him develop a habit. Everywhere he stood, he was like an old garlic sprout bent by the wind.The old Suanmiao raised his hand, and said as if he was doing something homely: "Well, yesterday was when the local officials returned to Beijing at the end of the year to report on their duties, and Long Live heard it all by himself. Today is the annual assessment of Beijing officials, and the papers have just been sealed. A few common people with ordinary hair came to the palace again. Long live the Lord has not rested since morning."

Liu Changzhou's heart skipped a beat for no reason, but he covered it up calmly, pretending to be casual and asked: "Common people? Are you a big performer or a great dancer?"

Wan Quan snorted and said, "You really know how to amuse yourself. I don't know exactly what kind of old servant it is. Anyway, the emperor specially ordered the imperial dining room to serve several plates of yellow peaches. Those things are precious, and it's winter. , where can I find yellow peaches?"

Liu Changzhou paused, his eyes suddenly lost his focus, but he quickly returned to his usual appearance, and said with a playful smile, "Who is so sacred, so difficult to serve?"

After a while, a little eunuch came to call Wan Quan, saying that Lord Long Live had something to look for.

When Wanquan came back again, Liu Changzhou obviously felt that Wanquan's tone and demeanor had changed.Old Suanmiao was still hunched over, and stopped playing with him. He didn't say a word of nonsense, and squeezed his throat and said: "Master Liu, let's go, Long Live is here to invite you."

Liu Changzhou jumped off the table and followed Wan Quan all the way.When the two of them reached the moon gate of a small garden on the west side, Wan Quan stopped.A kind of evergreen vine hangs from the shelf in front of the moon gate, covering a gravel path inside the moon gate.

But this was enough for Liu Changzhou to see what was going on inside.

There are two people sitting under the gazebo in the garden, his mother and Chang Li, and there is no Zong Yi.Immediately afterwards, he saw something else. Behind the overlapping ten thousand-year branches and rockery, there were some bowmen/crossbowmen everywhere who were about to shoot. The direction of the arrow pointed to the mother and daughter under the pavilion.

Wan Quan paused for a while, as if he wanted him to take a second look on purpose, and then said: "Long Live Lord wants me to give this to you." He took out two golden shells the size of pills from his pocket, and placed them next to each other. In the palm of his hand, he continued: "Master Liu, please choose one."

Liu Changzhou stabilized his mind, glanced at his mother, and said in a low voice: "Eunuch Wan, where is the emperor now?"

Wan Quan shook his head: "This old slave is just a messenger, why should your lord make things difficult for this old slave?"

Liu Changzhou looked at the two golden shells, and his hands began to tremble.

On the way back, he also thought about how to play a friendship card with Zong Yi, and by the way, tell the whole story about Donghaiying.But he never expected that Zong Yi refused to see him even once, and rejected all his opportunities in this way.Zong Yi gave him the label of "collaborating with the enemy and treason", and now he has invited his mother and Chang Li to the palace. The intention is self-evident - Zong Yi has become more and more distrustful of him, and has also begun to stab him. His weakness came to force him to submit.

He laughed at himself, and found that it was indeed the case. The trajectory of each stage of history was always surprisingly similar, that is, the emperor would never sit back and watch the generals guarding the frontier make contributions and accumulate power.

When he was promoted from the leader of the Guanyu Pavilion who was active in the dark to the commander of the Jiangbei battalion, he had thought about what Zong Yi's move was.

At that time, Jiangbeiying was a camp that was abandoned by the court and relied entirely on Xi Lihao for self-sufficiency. Zong Yi took away all his real power in Guanyu Pavilion, and placing him in Jiangbeiying was the beginning of his distrust.

Zong Yi probably didn't expect Beidi to come to commit the crime for the second time, and the once-in-a-thousand-year volcanic eruption gave him another chance to perform meritorious deeds... Then the cause and effect are clear at a glance.

Wan Quan urged: "My lord?"

Liu Changzhou came back to his senses, took a deep look at their mother and daughter, subconsciously held his breath, and picked up the golden shell in Wanquan's hand near the thumb.After it was unscrewed, there were two notes lying inside, with one large and one small handwriting, which read——

"Give me a way to silence everyone."

"Give me a reason to continue to trust you."

The meaning of the former one is "capital crime is inevitable, living crime is inevitable", and the meaning of the latter one is "Leave your mother and your little sister as collateral."

Wan Quan took a look at the note and said, "Master Liu, follow this old servant."

Liu Changzhou gritted his back molars tightly, the profile of his face became more and more sharp, and the feeling of powerlessness in his heart became very strong in an instant.His original backing was overturned overnight, and he suddenly felt doubts about the status quo. The sense of fate that had been accumulated for many years surged into his heart again. It turns out that those tragic stories are purely standing and talking without back pain.

In fact, his face was pale, his hands and feet were cold, and he unexpectedly found that this winter seemed a little warm.The feeling of the sinking heart didn't last long. He glanced at the mother and daughter who were under the pavilion who didn't know the disaster was imminent, and suppressed the urge to beat someone in his body. Why can a man become a hero, and also truly understand what is meant by "weakness".

He was led away in a daze, and he was shocked to find that Zong Yi had handled it so well that he had the ability to resist, but he didn't have the courage to resist—his mother and Chang Li.

Along the way, he tried to understand one thing very nonsensically, that is why in all the stories about love and hatred, the legendary characters have both parents died.

"See? The price of becoming a character is too high. First of all, you will be screened out."

After wandering around in a muddle, Wan Quan finally said to him after being pushed through a door: "Life and death are destiny, wealth and honor are in the sky, Mr. Liu, hey, ask yourself for good luck."

Liu Changzhou's subconscious reaction was "What the hell", he was caught off guard when his ankle was handcuffed, and there was a strange fragrance in the air.When his sanity returned and he quickly held his breath, he suddenly realized that all the strength in his body had been sucked out, and he knelt on the ground as soon as his knees softened.He didn't even have the strength to make a fist, and his chest seemed to be filled with gravel, so heavy that he didn't have the strength to expand and retract.

Then, someone squeezed his neck and poured a bowl of inexplicable stuff into his mouth.The moment the potion was ingested, the insignificant cold feeling of the shackles on the ankles was infinitely magnified, making him feel like he was once again placed in the perennial wind at the foot of the Cold Stone Mountain.Even those wounds that had completely healed in the early years jumped out to resist, and there was an illusion of being set on fire.

Liu Changzhou breathed a sigh of relief with all his strength, and knew what this place was - it was said that the torture room in the palace was specially designed to punish corrupt officials, it was called "Nine Deaths", and those who survived were lucky, but if they died, their life would be over.

He wanted to laugh for a moment. In his life, he had executed countless corrupt officials with his own hands. In the end, he actually tossed himself into such a ghostly place.

That bowl of inexplicable food was too overbearing, making almost all the bones and muscles in his body a kind of decoration, so he focused all his attention on breathing.In this kind of place, there is only one idea that becomes clearer and that is - to survive no matter what.

The dissatisfaction in his heart was going to be overwhelming, so he pulled the corner of his mouth and smiled, and when he was about to die, he seized the time to whistle, and said to the void: "Let's discuss it, don't slap your face, will it work?" ?”

Next, he knew everything clearly—the pierced shoulder blades, the severed tendons in the hands and hamstrings, and the scorching heat of the branding iron on his chest, he was very clear.The pain, which was magnified countless times, was almost unbearable for him. Every time he felt that it was time to exit, he re-entered the next place. The torture in the endless loop mode was endless. When the pain was extreme, he couldn't even clench his teeth.

He was still arguing with Lu Hanzhang about whether to die for his country or for his love, but at this moment, he suddenly felt that those things were all nonsense, and he was almost about to die for a very ridiculous thing, that ridiculous thing is called Zong Yi's suspicion.

Zong Yi wants to let him know what it means to be powerless.

Nature's punishments for humans are nothing more than mountain torrents, magma, and earthquakes. It is hard to imagine that the most extreme torture is actually created by humans.This comparison between the two sides suddenly realized that the adversity of nature always aims at punishment, while the purpose of punishment from man to man is to torture.It is said that natural disasters are ruthless, but man-made disasters are sometimes more frightening.

While adjusting his breathing, he gave this kind of heaven-defying existence a thumbs-up in his heart.

……

The hard time is so long, when the light enters his eyes again, he only has the last sliver of clarity, and he thinks vaguely: "Fortunately, damn it, I've turned around in the gate of hell, and I'm alive."

Then a huge grievance surged up unexpectedly, and something lingered in my heart.As soon as his eye sockets became hot, he couldn't control his hands. Holding his breath and half his life, he dipped in his own blood with local materials, closed his eyes and drew a line of crooked characters on the ground——

"I have made countless mistakes in my life, but there is no one better than me. I seek to know myself from the monarch and my ministers."

The day has passed and this extremely useless appearance is not over yet, there was a moment of chaos in his vague consciousness, he scolded his mother in his heart, and since he had almost no ability to resist right now, he simply gave up on himself.

Later, a cheap hand came out from nowhere, and slapped him hard on the face a few times without knowing how to take care of the disabled patients, and a very familiar voice came into his ears: "If you are not dead, open the door for the old lady." Open your eyes!"

This voice and this intonation inexplicably aroused his ups and downs of courage, and he raised his eyelids all at once.Seeing this, the grievance that was simmering in my heart at first couldn't be held back, tears fell down so hopelessly, and said with a muffled nose, "Mother, it hurts me to death, I don't want to live anymore."

The woman on the opposite side was taken aback, and gave him another slap without saying a word, cursing imposingly: "My mother gave birth to you and raised you for so many years, and I haven't enjoyed a day of your blessings yet, and I still hope to use your light to get a first-class one." Madam Dangdang, it turned out that you just had such a little skin trauma and dared to say 'you don't want to live'. If I knew you would say that, when I gave birth to you, I would sit on your ass to death, and it would be over!"

Liu Changzhou: "..."

He climbed the woman's shoulders to prop himself up, and childishly stuck his head into the woman's arms, crying and saying: "I'm not a thing, hey, I'm sorry for you and Chang Li."

The woman's hands paused, her eyes turned red, her hands were no longer as rough as before, she gently caressed Liu Changzhou's back, but her tone was still as unreasonable as before: "That's easy, I'll make an apology." There is no need to apologize. You will be reincarnated in the next life. You will be my mother. Just wait and see how hard I can torment you. When I was young, I not only had to go to the house to remove the tiles, but I also had to dig out the hornet’s nest and burn the widow next door. The stove at home, I will beat up the old gentleman of the school until he sees me and walks away..."

While Liu Changzhou nodded, tears flowed more and more.

He choked up and said, "Is there such a mother as you? I have become such a useless bear, and you still make me like this. Did my father's eyes get blurred by shit before he fell in love with you?"

The woman paused, then pinched him mercilessly, and said, "Keep your eyes open and look carefully to see where you are now."

Liu Changzhou sniffled, and obediently opened his eyes——

As far as the eye can see, there is an extremely flat ice surface, on which a blood-covered person is clearly reflected. There were two bloody wounds, and the hands holding the woman's shoulders were also covered with blood. The only intact part of the whole body was really only a face, which was so pale that it was transparent, but its lips were purple from the cold.

The woman had a pair of willow-leaf eyes, her long eyebrows were very delicately trimmed, and her appearance was crisp and sharp. There was a silver-white hairpin in the middle of her jet-black hair. Apart from that, she had no other decorations. appearance.

The woman sighed, put one hand on the back of his head, and said, "Yaoshan, mother didn't say anything, and you understand what you should say. A man is a man, and the word 'loyalty' is in his heart, but if you If the emperor failed you, then you must remember that you are the son of the people of Daqing, not the emperor's minion. Your father and I gave you this body, bones and skin, and the biggest request for you in this life is only four words. That is 'living up to the river and the mountain'."

"You have to be clear that the monarch is not benevolent and unrighteous, and it should not be an excuse or reason for you to let down your family and country. I gave you the word 'Yaoshan', which means that you will never turn back and never bend."

Liu Changzhou knew these truths, but maybe he sensed something strange. There was a sense of tension in his heart that forced him to seize all the time, and played a rascal very skillfully: "But what am I going to do now? I've been stabbed into a The ants are nesting, and I don't know what is left of me to leave for Daqing."

The woman raised her slap high, but when it came down, it was extremely light. She just swept across his face lightly, then held his side face tightly, and said calmly: "Nonsense. Do you know how long a person's life is?" ? How far have you come? Do you know what is 'till death'?"

She pointed to a pile of decayed and rotten leaves in the corner of the room, and before she could say anything, Chang Li suddenly jumped down from the hole, and said anxiously: "Brother, go quickly! If you don't leave, it will be too late!"

The sound of footsteps from far and near came one after another.

The woman stood up, pulled out the three-foot soft green peak from her waist, grabbed Liu Changzhou by the collar and slid him off the ice bed, glanced at him, and said coldly: "The grandsons of Dongying have all poked guns in your face Now, you are actually here to babble with me, saying that you yourself have become a worthless person. I will never let you go!"

Then she turned around and put the sword on her neck, and said sharply, "Get lost!"

Liu Changzhou's eyes were blurred in an instant, but when he moved a little, the pain temporarily suppressed by the cold flooded his body, making him unable to even breathe out.

Chang Li didn't say anything, he took him by both arms and carried him on his back, and the two escaped along the hole in the other direction of the ice room.After running all the way for a long time, Chang Li finally stopped, leaned him under a big tree, hugged his knees and squatted down, flattened his mouth, and complained: "Hey, I must have ruined ten marriages in my previous life. I have met two worthless wretches in my life, one can't live without my mother, and the other can't live without my wife."

Liu Changzhou covered his eyes with his arms, and said, "Your wretch wants me to give you a word, which probably means 'I will die in battle, and you will die of old age, this is the best way.'"

Chang Li smiled through tears: "When you see him, tell him, 'Your wife told you to eat/shit.'"

Liu Changzhou: "..."

Chang Ling suddenly leaned over, kissed him on the side of the cheek as he did when he was a child, and then took out a transparent amber bead from his bosom with a bit of blood red inside and hung it around his neck, a bright smile appeared on his face. She laughed and said, "Mother said that the last thing you need now is your weakness, so we will have no future."

Liu Changzhou stretched out his arms to grab a handful, and only took a handful of the cold winter air. The bright and beautiful young woman fled back in the direction she came from. Her back was thin, but in his eyes, she was overwhelming.

He exhaled, beat his heart once, and stood up while leaning on the tree trunk.