Si Tian Guan

Just after noon, the scorching sun in the morning was entangled by thick clouds, and the air suddenly cooled down.

Pedestrians on the street quickened their pace, trying to find a place to hide before the heavy rain fell.

The street was gradually emptied, making it more conspicuous for the few people who rode against the city gate on horseback.

The leader was wearing a bamboo hat, and a long snow-white veil hung down from the edge of the hat, covering half of his body, making it impossible to see his face clearly.

But when they passed by, some passers-by couldn't help turning their heads to see the tall and straight figure covered by the white gauze.

After leaving the city through the south gate, the man stopped his horse and looked back.

The distant city wall was concealed by the gradually condensed water vapor, and the gathered dark clouds in the sky seemed to weigh more than a thousand catties, thick and gloomy, pressing heavily on the entire city, and would crush everything below in the next moment It's like mud.

"Qu Sitian, what are you looking at?" Someone next to him asked, "Let's go, it's going to rain soon."

"Yes," he gathered his clothes, "it's about to change."

The sky is indeed about to change, just where they just left, sparks have been thrown into the dry wood that has been dormant for a long time, and will ignite in an instant.

The Empress Dowager, who is not long to live, will put all her eggs in one basket and light a fire in the palace city.

He thought that he was in the center of the flames and there was no way to avoid it, but he didn't expect that someone seemed to sense some danger and pulled him out.

The other person beside him casually waved his horsewhip, urging: "The sky is about to change, let's go, if you don't leave, you will be left behind by the sky."

They had a heavy responsibility, and they really couldn't delay, so they headed south quickly.

Although the Thousand Sons Pagoda is in Yunan County, firstly, the magistrate of Yunan County has already started to rebuild the Thousand Sons Pagoda, and secondly, several hexagrams directly designated the hill, so the group of people naturally rushed to Dingling Hill first.

Although he escaped the heavy rain in the capital city, the further south he went, the more endless the continuous rain became. It was difficult to walk along the way, and he slept in the wild for two nights, and finally entered the town before sunset on the third day.

The town is not very big, but because it is on the main road of traffic, it is more lively than imagined, and the townspeople don't even look sideways at these few foreign visitors.

Although they brought a few attendants, the emperor was afraid that Liu Chongming would mess up, so most of them were brought by Ding Lekang, so they could be assigned.

After the three of them sat down at the wooden table in the corner, the entourage hurriedly went to make arrangements for meals, lodging and feeding the horses.

Ding Lekang poured tea for the three of them, took a few sips himself first, and let out a sigh of relief: "It's hot and stuffy, and it's raining endlessly. What the hell is this?"

"Brother Ding hasn't walked to the south much, has he?" Another person asked with a smile, "It's not bad. Sometimes it's raining when you don't see the sun for a long time."

"Isn't it?" He grabbed the lapel and fanned it, and it was sticky. Even so, it didn't feel very good: "I don't know much about Chongming's travels, and today I have seen it."

It is not easy to address the official status when you are away from home, so you will be called by name directly according to your age.

Liu Chongming said modestly: "I don't go many times, I just heard about it."

They didn't have much interaction in the past, they could only talk about polite words, and they were exhausted, they didn't have a few words, and soon they had nothing to say.

Perhaps it was due to psychological troubles, Ding Lekang always felt that the prince's seemingly bright smile had malicious intentions, as if he wanted to fight ahead of him.

This trip was beyond his expectation, and the prince's secret order made him even more uneasy, so he couldn't help but glance at Qu Shenzhou.

Even on the road, this Qu Sitian said very little, his face was covered by a white gauze, he was as deep as an exiled immortal walking in the world.

Compared to Liu Chongming, he actually didn't want to deal with this person even more, but on this journey, Qu Sitian was the one who had the final say, and even the prince obeyed, so he couldn't say anything.

I don't know why, the prince is so obedient, he never had any disputes with Qu Sitian, it seems a bit different from what he heard and saw in court in the past, as if something went wrong in the rumors.

He was thinking wildly when he saw Qu Shenzhou lift the white gauze a little bit, as if he was sizing up the guests in the lobby, he couldn't help asking: "What's going on?"

Qu Shenzhou put down the white gauze again.

"Call Xiao Er to come over and ask if there are any rumors of strange trees eating people around here."

"Strange tree?"

Xiaoer put the little silver ingot in his arms with a happy smile, and replied courteously: "Guest officials, don't worry about staying here, it's absolutely safe!"

Ding Lekang's face darkened: "I asked if you have any, but I didn't ask about your affairs here!"

"Oh, oh," Xiao Er quickly replied, "No! However, when the shop welcomes you, there are often customers who tell strange stories, and it's no surprise that they change their tricks every few years. It's been more than half a year, and it's true. I heard that there is such a saying, hey, just make me laugh."

Judging by Xiao Er's indifferent attitude, he knew that there should be no similar homicides in the vicinity.

"What do you say?" Liu Chongming asked.

"There is no beginning and no end. People passing by suddenly disappeared like that. In the wild mountains and ridges, not a single bone was found. After passing around, they turned into trees and ate people. Do you think this tree is wronged?"

"Where did the guests say that?"

Xiao Er scratched his head for a long time: "I really can't remember this one, I just remember that one is from Shimao County."

When he heard the words "Shimao County", Liu Chongming's eyes flickered and he stopped talking.

Ding Lekang didn't know what to continue asking, so he turned his gaze to Qu Shenzhou.

Xiaoer bowed and waited for a while, thinking that there was nothing else to do, and was about to leave after singing a song, when he heard Qu Shenzhou ask: "Little brother, is there any good-looking young man in this town?"

Ding Lekang almost spit out the tea.

It's really hard to be judged by appearances. I didn't expect Qu Sitian to be so cold, ascetic and inviolable, so... so...

Now he was so tired that he couldn't even have a bite of hot food, so he couldn't wait, did he hold back in the palace for too long?

Thinking about it this way, it seems understandable.But in such a small place, no matter how good-looking it is, how can it surpass this one?

Xiao Er was stunned for a moment, then nodded and smiled immediately: "Yes! Yes! Do you need it? Just go out to the right..."

An ingot of gold was thrown on the table.

"I want one, you go and bring it to the guest room."

Liu Chongming answered in response: "Call me one too, we'll spend the money together."

Ding Lekang's chin dropped on the table, thinking about it, this son of the world was not a pure and pure master.

What's more, the servant of Cheng Huan who used to be under him called the young master in front of his face. This was simply a blatant provocation, how could the prince swallow this tone?

Ding Lekang was stuck in a dilemma. He was really tired, but if he didn't keep up, it would appear that he was getting older and that he couldn't do that.

He immediately decided: "Call me one too."

Qu Chenzhou and Liu Chongming glanced over meaningfully, and he clasped his fists and smiled as if understanding: "Laugh and laugh, let's have fun together."

After all, it is a place where guests often come and go. Although the guest room is small, it is decorated exquisitely. The room is clean. The food box on the table is wrapped in a towel to protect the hot food inside. The bathtub filled with water is placed behind the screen. .

Qu Chenzhou changed his clothes, and before he could loosen his hair, he heard a soft voice calling for the door from outside.

"Young master, the slave family is here."

A burst of irritability suddenly rose in his heart, and he regretted the arrangement for tonight, but before he could answer, the door was pushed open and closed again gently, and the man ran towards him in a hurry, about to take off his clothes.

"The young master is tired all the way, and let the slave family relieve the young master from his fatigue."

Qu Chenzhou was pushed to stagger a few steps and sat down. Seeing that he was about to be pushed down on the bed by that person, he felt ashamed and annoyed for a moment, so he couldn't help but slap him.

"Stop messing around!"

"Why are you getting better and better?" Liu Chongming covered his face with a sad face: "Master, you dislike me for picking up customers for the first time. Did you not serve me well?"

Qu Chenzhou bit his lips and looked at him: "It's just a trip out of Beijing, why did your son Meng Lang become like this all of a sudden!"

"It wasn't because of going out of Beijing, nor was it suddenly," Liu Chongming said. The happiness that had been suppressed for many days bloomed on his face, and he graciously pulled him to sit down, and he was about to squeeze his shoulders.

"Shen Zhou, ever since I knew I was going to come out with you, I was so excited that I didn't sleep for several nights. It was because Ding Lekang hated me too much, and I never knew how to avoid suspicion."

Qu Chenzhou opened his hand, and took a step forward: "I see that Ding Lekang is fine, at least he won't brazenly pretend to be a young man in the middle of the night."

Liu Chongming was very wronged: "You looked at me before going upstairs, didn't you just ask me to arrange it, and come to you now?"

"You..." Qu Chenzhou was furious: "Who is looking at you! I just took a look at you!"

"Look at me... didn't you let me come here at this time?"

Qu Chenzhou was speechless, after a while, he realized that the slap just now was too hard, and now his palms were also aching, so he turned his face and pulled the hair tie: "Why don't you hide?"

A few hairs were entangled, and he was about to tear them off when someone grabbed his wrist from behind.

"Don't move, I'll help you," Liu Chongming sighed softly, and patiently untied his hair one by one: "Shen Zhou, when will you learn to be nice to yourself?"

Qu Chenzhou shrank his shoulders and turned his head away from him: "Where's the person?"

"Those two? I've settled them all, don't worry, Ding Lekang won't find out, he's still busy," Liu Chongming ran his fingers through his hair: "Don't interrupt, before we talk about things today, I have something more I have something important to tell you."

Qu Chenzhou got up to leave, but he sat down on his shoulders, his voice was not too loud, so he could only say in a hateful voice: "What are you talking about, I haven't bathed yet!"

He regretted it as soon as he said it, but it was too late.

Liu Chongming hugged him horizontally from behind, and walked behind the screen.

"Liu Chongming!" He was anxious and shy, struggling several times: "Bold! I'm not yours now..."

"My what?" Liu Chongming didn't care about anything, just gently put him in the tub, went to the side to get a water ladle and said, "You are not mine, I am yours, okay? Don't be so loud."

Qu Chenzhou leaned against the bucket, his eyes were reddened by the hot air, he didn't want others to see him, so he washed his face and asked, "What do you want to say?"

Liu Chongming leaned over the edge of the bucket to look at him.

"Shen Zhou, I have thought about a lot since I saw you on the day my sister gave birth. I always thought that I remembered everything, and I had the same memory as you, but I found that I had overlooked one thing - why did you What about the reborn?"

Qu Chenzhou trembled uncontrollably.

"Because I was the one I used to be?" Liu Chongming squatted down, took his hand that was tightly grasped by the bucket, slowly wrapped it in his palm, and brought it to his lips.

"Shen Zhou, I regret it. Whether it was before or now, I have taught you many things, but I forgot to teach you how to love yourself."

Qu Chenzhou wanted to pull out his hand convulsively, but it was clenched tightly.

"Shen Zhou, after you left, I was stuck in those old things for a long time. I wanted to protect you, but I didn't dare to approach you. I was afraid that when you saw me, you would think of the hurt you did to you."

"I'm sorry for you. I used to think that as long as you are well, I will walk away. As long as you are willing, let me just disappear."

These words seemed to hit Qu Chenzhou's sore spot, and he blurted out a "don't".

"I guessed right, why are you so stupid."

Liu Chongming sighed lightly.

Holding the sobbing little fox that night, listening to the phrase "Why do you want to kill yourself", he was originally emotional, and responded with one sentence - I am willing to do anything for you, even to die.

But after calming down, I realized more and more that I had made a huge mistake.

Now avoiding Qu Shenzhou is not what the other party really needs.

For a long time, he has been immersed in his own guilt, but he forgot that what Shi Yan relayed clearly said "I am ashamed of you".

The Shen Zhou who was willing to wait for him for ten years, the Shen Zhou who was willing to die for him calmly, the Shen Zhou who was willing to die for him without regret after living a lifetime, has never changed.

Always take all the burden on yourself, always blame yourself for all the faults.

I have never learned to love myself.

The indifference and alienation of the past few months, Liu Chongming always thought it was due to debt and resentment, but because of the "suicide" that night, he vaguely found an exit.

He wanted to understand the little fox's determination, and this decision sent chills down his spine.

"Shen Zhou, no matter what I did for you in the past, I did it willingly."

"I may be him, or I may not be him, but no matter which one I am, I won't want to see you worry about it."

"Don't go on your own way to a dead end, you are no longer alone, we have many ways to choose, can you rely on me?"

"Since you don't love yourself, let me protect you, okay?"

Liu Chongming noticed that the fingers in his palm were slightly convulsed, and he held it even harder.

"I promise you three things. First, I will never doubt you from now on. Second, I will obey your words..."

Qu Chenzhou naturally remembered that this was what he had said outside the Ten Mile Pavilion, and suddenly sneered and pulled his hand out.

"Are you obedient to my words? Has the prince forgotten, who did I step on to climb up to this position? Do you dare to listen to me? Are you not afraid that I will plot against you again?"

"Shen Zhou, I'm really afraid of your schemes."

Qu Chenzhou's eyes darkened for a moment, before he could lower his head, a warm kiss landed on his forehead.

"You said you plotted against all of us, but we are all safe and sound, only you are scarred."

"Except for you, there is no other fool in this world who is willing to calculate like this."

"I'm really afraid of death."

"I..." Qu Chenzhou tried to calm himself down, but he could hear a lump in his throat: "I just treat the prince as a pawn in my hand."

The kiss moved lightly to the lips.

"It's my honor to be your pawn."

"Third, when all the dust settles, whether to go or stay, I will give you freedom..."

The author has something to say: Persimmon: You may not believe me, but this is a new trick I learned, called playing hard to get—wife, if you are willing to part with me, then go away [嘤咔] Shen Zhou: Okay, I’m leaving .

persimmon:?