I see the snow

When Xi Huai opened his eyes again, he was in his former bedroom.

He is very familiar with this place. There is a wind chime hanging on the outside on the right side of the top of the bed, and it is hung with colorful hemp ropes.It was taken from the neck of the cat he kept.

At the foot of the bed is a rattan drawer with three compartments, where Xi Huai's clothes and things he considers precious are placed.

... The chrysanthemums, small porcelain figurines and other things that Yinzhichuan gave him were once placed there.

Xi Huai left in a hurry and was afraid of attracting Yin Zhichuan's attention, so he didn't take him away.

Seeing it now, there is a feeling that things are right and wrong in a trance.

He stared in a daze for a moment, then reacted belatedly and stood up, wanting to hold those things in his hands and have a look.

However, it wasn't until this moment that Xi Huai started to move that something was wrong——

Before he knew it, his wrists were handcuffed with a thick iron chain, which was connected to the head of the bed.As soon as it moves, there will be a crisp sound of "jingling, bang, bang".

"..."

Xi Huai stared at the chain for a moment, and finally realized that he was under house arrest by Yin Zhichuan.

He didn't let him leave the Starfield Capital, nor let him leave the Zhen Guogong's mansion, cutting off any chance for him to get in touch with Shangjing.

Actually... why bother.

Xi Huai thought with a wry smile, he was already the traitor of Shangjing, he should have escaped Huacishu's pursuit, how could he take the initiative to meet him?

...It's just that now, Yin Zhichuan won't believe anything he says, right?

Xi Huai quietly stared at his hands: they had already met strangers, and there was no friendship at all.

"What you said about Xinyue before, was it all a lie?...Xi Huai, Xi Huai, do you know that both denial and confirmation must be true?"

Recalling the confrontation in the rain before he passed out, Xi Huai still feels a dull pain in his heart.

"Is anyone awake?"

While he was in a daze, Xi Huai heard a conversation outside the house.

A familiar shadow was reflected on the window paper, and the man who looked like a servant bowed his head to the figure: "I heard some movement just now... Maybe I woke up."

The man said "um" casually, then pushed the door open and entered.

Xi Huai had never heard Yin Zhichuan speak in such a cold voice, and even for a moment he wondered if he heard it wrong.

However, it wasn't until Yin Zhichuan walked in that Xi Huai realized that his expression was also very strange.

With such an indifferent and calm expression, even when he walked to Xihuai's bed, Yinzhichuan did not reveal a trace of their previous acquaintance.

He looked at Xi Huai from above like a stranger, his eyes were full of indifference, indifference, and neglect.

Xi Huai's fingers involuntarily clenched the quilt under the bed slightly.

"Looks like you're doing well here."

After a while, Yin Zhichuan smiled suddenly.He indifferently glanced at the things around Xi Huai, looked around, and said without knowing what it meant.

Xi Huai remained silent.

Yinzhichuan continued: "Are you still used to it?... I haven't changed anything here, and I still arrange it according to your preferences before you left—only the snow porcelain pot and the pear flower case are accidentally broken when you are unhappy. It’s been a while, and now I’ve replaced it with new ones.”

He said, stroking the small case and the porcelain pot lightly with his fingers, as if whispering to himself: "You know, it's always the best to get things for your room. There is no courtyard in the mansion that can compare to your Zhan Garden... So, I really don't understand, Xihuai, what's so good about the Shangjing Huacishu, but it makes you willing to work hard for him?"

"..."

The man in white pursed his lips.

He couldn't wait for the answer, and Yin Zhichuan knew it in his heart.

Yin Zhichuan just smiled casually, and ironically, he turned his attention to Xi Huai again.

He was standing next to Xihuai's bed right now, and he could see each other very clearly, even within walking distance.

However, Yinzhichuan just stood there, not touching Xihuai at all, and he looked completely different from the intimacy of the past.

"do you know?"

After a long time, he said in a low and hoarse voice: "The thing I was most afraid of before was that you would leave my side. So I did all kinds of exhausting things, just to make you fall in love with me. But I didn't expect... In the end, I used That's the way to keep you."

Yinzhichuan smiled lightly and picked up the iron chain on Xihuai's bed, and weighed it in his hands, as if he was considering whether the iron chain was too heavy.

His voice was a little lonely, Xi Huai heard it in his ears, and saw his movements, so he subconsciously thought that there was some concern in this movement.

However, at the next moment, Yin Zhichuan continued to say:

"Did they use such an iron chain to tie you up?...The assassin sent by the dignified Jinghuacishu only uses cold black iron to imprison you, isn't it too disrespectful?"

He held Xi Huai's bracelet, and pulled it without any warning. Xi Huai unexpectedly fell to the ground with a "plop", his elbow fell to the ground, and he groaned in pain.

Yin Zhichuan looked down at him from above, seeing Xi Huai's thin shoulder blades trembling slightly under the pain, but his eyes were indifferent.

Like a mischievous child, he looked at the pain of the man in white, and said softly:

"Oh... It seems that the material of this cold black iron is very good. It can completely imprison you."

Xi Huai's wrist is very thin, locked in a heavy and wide iron chain, it looks almost pitiful.Seeing her thin and lonely wrists being treated like this made one feel pity, and almost wanted to rub them in his hands.

Yinzhichuan stood where he was, only watching with cold eyes.Xi Huai slowed down for a while, then got up from the ground panting.

"Yes."

He said in a low voice, his expression was still rudimentary and calm, and he said indifferently: "I am a little more difficult than you imagined..."

But Yin Zhichuan was not willing to let it go, he tilted his head and said curiously:

"But Xi Huai, when I saw something sad about you in the past - even if you frowned a little, I felt pain as if my heart was gouging out. But now when I see you fall to the ground, I don't feel any pain at all."

"..."

Xi Huai felt a dull pain in his heart, he clenched his teeth and remained silent.

Yin Zhichuan, however, insisted on seeing the expression on his face, so he specially took a closer look, carefully sizing up Xi Huai's trembling eyelashes, as if he wanted to see if there was any change in his mood.

"Sure enough—"

After a long time, the corner of Yinzhichuan's lips curled up into a smile, and he murmured in a low voice, "Do I like you or not... You're not here at all—"

He wanted to say "you don't care at all", but before he could say the last word, Yin Zhichuan felt a sharp pain in his chest, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

"Yinzhi River——!"

Xi Huai whispered, but Yin Zhichuan didn't seem to care, "ha" he chuckled and wiped it, then casually wiped the blood from his palm on his clothes.

"This is proof that I loved you."

He was coughing, his face was a little pale, but he still smiled, and said in a very low voice: "The poison you gave me, the ending you gave me, I took it all...Are you still satisfied?"

"..."

Xi Huai was almost more shocked than he was poisoned, but Yin Zhichuan just looked at him and smiled, and said nonchalantly: "Why, didn't you think that the poisoned dream grass looks so ugly? It scared you...I'm really sorry."

Xihuai's hands and feet were trembling, and he asked in a daze:

"How could it be?... How could it still be poisoned? I'm not, haven't I—"

Didn't he want to say that I have left you?

But Yinzhichuan's indifferent eyes made him unable to continue.

"Didn't you plan this carefully?"

Yin Zhichuan asked back: "On the day of my birthday party, you gave me a purse with 'Ping An' on it, but put extremely poisonous herbs in it. Xi Huai, this is really in line with your extremely smart style. .”

"--I do not have!!"

Xi Huai interrupted him loudly.

"You haven't?"

Yinzhichuan chuckled and said, "Then you are not an assassin sent by Shangjing, nor are you Hua Cishu's eyeliner? You stayed by my side because you liked me sincerely, not for revenge, or for anything else that you can't say." reason?"

"..."

Xi Huai looked at him almost in despair, Yin Zhichuan continued: "Xi Huai, at this moment I believe you for the last time, you tell me that you are not meticulous, I will believe you. Can you say that."

"..."

Xi Huai's fingers trembled slightly in his sleeves, his voice was hoarse, he stared at Yinzhichuan, and said word by word: "I am a secret agent sent by Shangjing, and I did plot against you, but—"

"But you didn't poison me."

Yin Zhichuan looked at him with a smile, and slowly clapped his hands, "Xi Huai, Xi Huai, you are really smart—you won't admit that you poisoned, because if you admit to poisoning, you have to come up with the antidote. But why are you willing to come up with the antidote? You just want me to die...Is that so, so you would rather admit to using the dream grass than to admit to using the dream grass. Am I right?"

Xi Huai: "..."

Xi Huai looked at Yin Zhichuan's contemptuous but untrusting smile, and at this moment felt a kind of alienation between two people who were close at hand but far away as if separated by a moat.

"But you miscalculated a little bit," Yin Zhichuan said indifferently, as if his eyes were indifferent, "—that is, I am not afraid of death."

"I don't want to live as much as you imagined, just like before I met you—" Yin Zhichuan paused: "...Before I met you, I was already living in a daze."

There are very few things Yin Zhichuan cares about in this world.

Relatives and friends all left him.Xihuai is the only one who can be called nostalgia.

So he was willing to raise his gun for Xi Huai, and try to protect something again.

It's just a pity that things in the world are never left to people's calculations.

Silence circulated between the two.

After Yinzhichuan said those words, he felt an unprecedented ease——

Yes, he no longer had to beg for anything.

When he couldn't get the confirmation he wanted the most, what came at the same time as death was a sense of relief.

He no longer has to figure out Xi Huai's intentions and guess the meaning of his every move, because he really, never liked him.

From then on, the dead trees no longer wait for the first green, and only the long wind remains in the wilderness.

In this way, Xi Huai was put under house arrest in the Zhen Guogong's mansion, and the people who went to Beijing couldn't find him, and he couldn't get out.

At first, Ji Wuhen would go to persuade Yinzhichuan to think of a way from Xihuai to find the antidote for the Dream Grass.But after it didn't work, I didn't persuade it.

You can't stop a person who wants to die, can you?

Yin Zhichuan didn't go to see Xi Huai very much - only to "see", he often went to the room where Xi Huai was under house arrest.

It's just that sometimes I go to the door, stand there, stand quietly for a while, and then leave again.

No one knew what he was thinking.

Those bluff "I don't love you anymore" and "I don't expect you to like me" are all brazen words spoken out of the heart.

If you really uncover the hypocrisy on the surface, you will see that the inside is full of cowardice and sadness.

Why not?

This is the only person he ever loved.

It's just that after he understood that Xi Huai hated him and would never be able to please him, Yin Zhichuan couldn't persuade himself to put on such a pitiful waiting posture again.

He wished for him to die so that he could avenge his relatives who died in Canglan.

This hatred hurt Yinzhichuan more than others' attacks.

He has already suffered from the common people's eyes, and the stigma and attack that others think he is the orphan of a fugitive general.

Yinzhichuan still remembers the rotten vegetable leaves and traces of swill that stuck to the coffin of his father and brother, but now he is able to laugh it off.

He just couldn't escape the dull pain in his heart when he understood that his beloved also regarded him as a blood feud.

He finally understood why his father said that he had a fatal accident before he was 24 years old——

It is indeed a great catastrophe, just like a dream that is dying, knowing that death is poisonous, but unable to resist its extravagant fragrance, making people unable to resist sinking.

"Seven sons."

One day, when the servants were serving tea, a somewhat familiar maid said in a low voice, as if hesitating to speak.

Yin Zhichuan was grinding in front of the table. He was thinking about what to write recently—before he died, he had to leave some explanations, such as the distribution of property in the mansion and the dispatch of servants.

Hearing this, Yin Zhichuan didn't raise his head, and said:

"what happened?"

"It's Mr. Xihuai..."

The servant girl whispered softly: "He hasn't been very well recently..."

Yinzhichuan was startled, then raised his head——

Only then did she realize that she was the maid who had served Xihuai before.

He kept Xi Huai under house arrest in Zhanyuan as usual, and the servants he served did not change.Although Xi Huai is cold, it is strange that the servants who have been close to him all like Xi Huai and feel that he is different from other young masters.

"Did he send you here?"

Yinzhichuan sneered, then lowered his head again.

"no no--"

Unexpectedly, the girl waved her hands again and again, and hurriedly explained: "Master Xihuai has not used water for a long time, and he has no energy to even speak while lying on the collapsed bed. How could he tell his servants to come and find him?"

Yin Zhichuan let out an "oh" and didn't say anything else.

In fact, when he heard that it was not Xi Huai who had brought someone to talk to him, he felt a little disappointed in his heart.

But he concealed this disappointment, and didn't show it in the slightest.

"You don't want to eat, do you?"

Yin Zhichuan continued to focus on his pen and paper, and said, "If you don't want to eat, you don't want to eat. It's enough if you haven't starved to death, don't tell me."

maid:"……"

She seemed incomprehensible, and found Yin Zhichuan's attitude incredible.

How could a person who cherished maintenance so much in the past change just by saying it?

"be surprised?"

Yin Zhichuan raised his eyes, glanced at the surprised look of the maid, and said with a faint smile, "Do you know who he is?"

"...All the servants in the mansion say that Mr. Xihuai is not a good person."

After a moment of silence, the servant replied honestly.

"Yeah, he's not a good guy."

Yinzhichuan replied, his voice was very calm, Momoran didn't care: "So you stay away from him, and don't feel sorry for him. He is a ruthless person who will kill you all."

"..."

Listening to Yin Zhichuan's words, the maid fell silent as expected.

Yinzhichuan thought she was frightened by him, and paused for a moment, but the next moment he heard the maid whispering softly:

"But... I think Mr. Xihuai likes you very much."

"—When he was alone in the room, he often looked out of the window in a daze—at first I thought he was looking out of the window, but later I found out that he was actually looking at the little book you gave him on the bamboo trunk It’s a thing. The chrysanthemum, the little porcelain man, he should really want to hold it in his hand and look at it, but the chain is too short, so he can’t reach it. So he can only keep looking at it like that.”

The maid said in a soft voice, "So I think, Mr. Xihuai, he should like you very much, Mr.?"

Yinzhichuan: "..."

In the silence that no one noticed, Yinzhichuan's Adam's apple rolled slightly.

——He should like you very much, young master, right?

Yinzhichuan repeated these words in his ear, like the whisper of a demon wrapped in honey.

This is the most sarcastic and false sentence Yin Zhichuan has ever heard: "He should like you very much, right?"

how is this possible.

Yin Zhichuan thought, if he liked him, how could they have come to this point?

He is the person who hates Yinzhichuan the most in this world, he would rather leave Shengyang than stay by his side.

He hated Yinzhichuan very much.

"Maybe he's playing tricks on you."

After a long time, Yin Zhichuan said softly to the maid.

"Next time, don't tell me this kind of thing."

Yin Zhichuan said in a low voice: "If he loses his temper, let him deliver food and water after he loses his temper. Tell me... Even if I go over, he will only get angrier."

At the end, there was a slight self-deprecating smile on Yin Zhichuan's face.

He thought, look, Xi Huai, sometimes I am very considerate.

You hate me and don't want to see me, then I won't be annoying in front of you anymore.

It's disgusting to be liked by the orphan of the enemy, right?Then I won't bother you any more, and make you worry in vain.

In fact, if I had treated you as just a little girl from the beginning, whether it was for fun or letting you go out of the house if I wasn't interested, I wouldn't have so many worries today.

After all, all the mistakes are because I should not please you.

……

Xi Huai lay on the soft couch, looking flatly at the top of the bed directly above.

His breathing was very slow, and he didn't want to move his limbs. His whole body fell into a state of low energy consumption and very little water intake.

Just like before falling asleep.

He hadn't eaten for more than 50 hours, it wasn't that Xihuai went on a hunger strike or wanted to threaten Yinzhichuan with this, it was just that he simply couldn't eat.

He had a vague premonition—he was about to commit a drug addiction to quit the red pill.

When was the last time you used Shangjing's medicine?

Xi Huai couldn't remember clearly, it was vaguely when Huacishu found him and asked him to attack Yinzhichuan.

But that has been a long time ago.

Xi Huai had consciously trained himself to quit, but he hadn't succeeded yet, he could only endure a little longer than others.

Judging from the experience of dealing with this drug for so many years, the next step for him to lose his appetite is to lose his mind and only want to get the drug. For this reason, he even does some confusing and unimaginable things.

Xi Huai didn't want Yin Zhichuan to see his distressed appearance in the Zhen Guo Mansion.

...so, he's planning an escape.

Apart from not wanting Yinzhichuan to see his face without dignity, there was another reason why Xihuai wanted to leave.

He was almost certain that the person who made Yinzhichuan dream of dreaming grass was Huacishu, but he didn't know why Yinzhichuan mistook him for him.

Xi Huai didn't care what Yinzhichuan thought, whether he misunderstood him, but he wanted to get the antidote from Huacishu.

It was obvious that he could not get the antidote if he stayed at the Duke of Zhen's mansion, so he had to leave in order to find Huacishu.

This is Zhanyuan, where he stayed for half a year.

Xi Huai thought, this is really a blessing in misfortune.If Yinzhichuan really changed the garden for him, Xihuai might be helpless, but in Zhanyuan——Xihuai had left for himself a retreat that might be useful one day when he moved in.I didn't expect that the worry at the beginning would really come in handy one day.

Xi Huai quietly counted the clappers of the watchmen. He had observed a few days ago that every third watch, the patrol guards in the mansion would take an extra cup of tea than usual.

The moon was rising inch by inch, and the windows in the room were open.

Through the window, Xihuai can see the dead branches holding the moon outside, curved, graceful and lonely, very artistic.

Willow head on the moon, after dusk.

This should be a good time for a date, right?He thought to himself and smiled silently.

"Dang-dang-dang-beware of candles-!"

"Sister Axiu, I'm here to change your shift, you go to rest."

Someone outside the window said faintly.

Xi Huai's fingers moved silently under the quilt, knowing that his time had come.

The maid who was changing shifts only pushed open the crack of the door, looked in from a distance, saw Xi Huai lying on the inside, seemed to be fast asleep, so she looked away.

But in reality, Xi Huai kept his eyes open, and after the door closed for a few seconds, he silently sat up on his knees.

The man in white looked at the iron chain on his wrist, and turned his wrist slightly, trying to find a way to pull his hand out of the shackles.

However, the Lengxuan grip was too narrow and tight, no matter how hard Xi Huai tightened his hand, he couldn't turn it out.

After a long while, Xi Huai was silent, and suddenly held his right hand with his left hand, and then only heard a very light "click", he deformed his entire right hand!

Xi Huai opened his mouth silently, and a layer of cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead.

But he abruptly didn't make a sound, just curled up in the corner, holding back the sharp pain.

After a low gasp, Xi Huai slowly rotated the shackle again.This time he took off the handcuffs easily, but his right hand was broken and deformed.

——Yinzhichuan should be thankful that the Lengxuanchao he used can be solved with only a broken bone, otherwise, with Xihuai's ruthlessness, he might even be able to cut off his right hand.

After solving the problem of shackles, Xi Huai slowly got out of bed.

During his groping, he found the opening mechanism of the secret door left behind, and after pressing it lightly, a floor tile was retracted in the corner of the inner wall, revealing the passage leading to the outside of Zhanyuan.

Xi Huai took a deep breath, and looked around the room for the last time, he felt weak and weak after not eating for several days.

But the man in white held his breath against the wall, and then walked in resolutely.

He didn't bring the little porcelain figurines, chrysanthemums and other things in the bamboo box, because he was afraid of delaying the trip and alarmed Yinzhichuan.

However, what is unexpected is that the moment Xihuai stepped into the secret path, Yinzhichuan was also walking towards Zhanyuan——

He tossed and turned half the night, thinking about what the maid said.

She said, "Master Xihuai likes you very much, right?", and said that Xihuai hadn't eaten for a long time.

Yin Zhichuan seemed to have a nervous clock in his heart, he was always a little uneasy, so he decided to come over and have a look.

He brought some soft porridge that Xi Huai used to like to eat, and he just stepped into the garden without calling a servant.

However, it wasn't until Yin Zhichuan entered the room that he stared at the empty bed in the room, remained silent for a few seconds, then turned around and asked:

"...What about people?"