beg for chivalry

Yu Bingzi was standing in the room, holding the mortar with his head down, the copper punch bumped into the broken grass blades one after another, making a shocking crisp sound.The black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, covering her eyebrows and eyes in a shadow.

She was standing in the dark post house, a few ray of sunlight penetrated through the sills of the brocade windows, and fell on her in pieces.In the gloom and silence, the surroundings seemed to be immersed in light ink, only she was dressed in white, which seemed to be a little transparent.

Suddenly, her face moved slightly.A few round drops of water spread on the table, leaving dark marks on the dusty wooden table.When Yu Yi hadn't stepped through the threshold, he happened upon this scene—that was tears.Yu Bingzi was sobbing.

"It's finally here." Yu Yiwei stood there in a daze, but his shoulders suddenly fell heavily, and an assassin wearing a torch mask slipped out of the shadows and put his arm heavily on his shoulders.The torch-mouthed ghost's cautious eyes wandered over him. "That kid Huo Ba skipped the shift here, and I'm still so busy! Is your name Hu Shiqi? Go and coax the girl from the Mu family."

The torch mouth ghost ordered him in an unquestionable tone, and pushed Yu Yiwei towards Yu Bingzi.Yu Yiwei looked dazed, staggered, and stumbled to Yu Bingzi.

Yu Bingzi raised her head slowly, her blue hair poured down like a curtain of water, her eyes were like deep black pools, staring at him dimly behind her hair.It was a ruthless gaze that watched the murderous ghost.

Behind him was the assassin's burning gaze, and Yu Yiwei was sweating coldly. He didn't know how much the assassins had doubted him, so he had to make a long bow first, "Uh, girl, don't come... are you okay?"

"...It's you." Yu Bingzi stared at his impermanent bird face for a long time, then murmured coldly, then turned his head away again.

They met each other in the carriage shed of the escort. At that time, Yu Bingzi was tear-stained, holding the belt in his hand, looking up at him mournfully; Freshly cut off his face and in a state of disorienting terror.

Yu Yiwei had never seen Yu Bingzi so indifferent and alienated.When she was in the gate of Tianshan in the past, whenever she saw herself walking with Yuzhi Xu, she would always run over with a smile on her face, waving her hands, chatting with Yuzhi Xu, and secretly eyeing herself.When their eyes meet, Yu Yiwei will always turn his ears red with embarrassment, and turn his eyes timidly.At this time, the little junior sister would always giggle and steal her robe, calling out: "Brother Yiwei, why don't you look at me?"

He dared not look at her.Yu Yiwei felt a pain in his heart, he is now a silent assassin of the Ministry of Fire, but in the eyes of the junior sister, he is just a murderous ghost.

Silence froze between them.Yu Yiwei scratched his head in embarrassment, looking for something to say, "You... Have you been injured these days?"

What he is most concerned about is Yu Bingzi's safety, and he is also afraid that the Houtianlou assassin will neglect her.

Yu Bingzi said coldly: "What's the matter with you?"

"Well, I don't think you... don't look like you've been injured." Yu Yiwei said clumsily, "I'll take care of you during this time, just tell me if you have anything to do."

The torch mouth ghost sneered beside him: "You are so humble, are you blinded by this little girl's beauty, and you want to rush to make a cow for her?"

There was also an arrow-like sight from the front, and Yu Bingzi glared at him: "Don't bother yourself."

Yu Yiwei was not a human being, so he had to shut up in embarrassment.

The younger junior sister lowered her head and fiddled with the copper punch for a while, Yu Yiwei could only stand there blankly watching her go up and down, not paying attention to herself at all, just thinking of her as a silent beam in the room.

After a moment of silence, Yu Yiwei felt itchy and asked, "What are you doing?"

From just now, Yu Bingzi has been bowing his head to crush the herbs in the mortar, mix them with water, and make a paste.Yu Yi disappeared, and added another sentence: "What kind of medicine are these?"

Yu Bingzi stared at the mortar.For some reason, her eyes widened slightly, and the pupils were hollow, as if a layer of cloud was floating.After a long time, she said, "It's medicine for wounds."

"Who was hurt?"

"Disciple of Tianshan Gate." She looked at Yu Yiwei suddenly, her eyes were sharp but empty, her voice was extremely soft, but every word seemed to draw blood on Yu Yiwei's heart.

"Don't you know? The mountain post here is full of disciples of the Tianshanmen who are imprisoned. You beat them with rattan whips and wide boards every day, crush their fingers and toes with iron tongs, and pour them medicine. Teach them to bleed from the seven orifices, and take pleasure in it." Yu Bingzi said coldly, as if staring at him, "What's so interesting about this kind of thing? Why can people be used as objects of pleasure?"

These words made it harder for Yu Yiwei to breathe.He thought of the blood-stained and mottled prison carts behind the posthouse, and the strange, mournful and mournful noise that echoed in the mountain post every day.He thought it was the howl of a wild animal, but it turned out to be the cry of a human being.This place may be close to Houtianlou's lair, so the assassins gathered the Yaoren in this mountain station for the time being.

Seeing that Yu Yi was not tongue-tied and had nothing to say, Yu Bingzi remained silent and continued to work with herbs with his head down.After a long time, her white fingers suddenly stopped for a moment.Yu Bingzi asked casually, "Your name is... Huo Shiqi?"

"...Yes." Yu Yi replied hastily.

"Fire Department... Fire Seventeen?"

"Exactly."

The sound of the copper punch stopped abruptly, and Yu Bingzi turned her head slowly. Her face was clear and fair, as if shining a little in the post house floating in the dust. Pale and bloodless.

Her red lips opened and closed. "Is it someone from the Ministry of Fire who killed Senior Brother Zhi Xu? You are also... from the Ministry of Fire?"

It was as if a hammer had hit his chest hard, Yu Yiwei's eyes widened, and his ears seemed to be buzzing.He was dizzy, and he felt like mosquitoes and flies were hovering around his ears, disturbing his messy thoughts.

Acid water rose in his stomach, and the bloody smell of that gloomy night seemed to be gradually wafting, lingering in his nostrils lingeringly.He pursed his lips tightly, because he might spit it out once he opened his mouth.

Little Junior Sister's face seemed to be gradually distorted in front of him, melting into scorching iron juice, pouring on his heart.Yu Yiwei nodded numbly and murmured.

"……Yes."

Yu Bingzi looked surprisingly calm.She asked, "Did you kill Senior Brother Zhi Xu?"

"Do not…"

"But Senior Brother Zhi Xu was killed by an assassin from the Ministry of Fire, and you are their henchman, Hou Tianlou's minion!"

Yu Bingzi was aggressive.Her words were like sharp spears, driving Yu Yiwei to the edge of the cliff.In fact, every word she said is true, but the facts don't seem like these words are strung together.

Yu Yi was suddenly overwhelmed by her menacing aura.The torch mouth ghost watched him quietly from behind him, teaching him to walk on thin ice more and more.

After a long time, he nodded with difficulty. "It was the Ministry of Fire...we killed it."

The impermanent bird face on his face reached a thousand junctures, enveloping his sincerity.Yu Bingzi looked at him coldly, with hatred in his eyes, and regarded him as a sworn enemy.

Yu Yiwei was lowering his head when he suddenly heard a crisp sound.The mortar suddenly fell from Yu Bingzi's hands and rolled to his feet.He raised his head in panic, but his eyes only caught the afterimage under the corner of the snow-white clothes.Yu Bingzi covered his face with his hands, and fled from him in a hurry.

She got into the small room, and slammed the door tightly, and the door was closed tightly like a clamshell.

The Torch-Kouu Ghost stood by and laughed, "It's a small room for medicines. That girl insisted that some medicines were not ready to be seen and had to be ground in that small room. There was nothing we could do, so we made room for her." Where to go, anyway, she can't escape from this post house. Sometimes she loses her temper and has to stay in it for a whole day."

"Then will she... come out?" Yu Yiwei breathed out tremblingly, feeling uneasy.He felt that Junior Sister must have been angry after hearing his words, and her heart was broken.

But he really has no choice, and now he has nowhere to go.He has not yet been able to make these evil spirits discover his true colors.

"Stay until dinner time at most, and she will come out then." Torch-mouth ghost said with a smile, "Anyone has to eat, no matter how bad-faced she is for us to see, she is still a pampered girl!"

They sat on the bench for a long time, there was still some weeping in the small room at first, and then it gradually died down.Outside the house, the shadow of the sun was slanting to the west, and the sunset glow flowed like blood on the stone bricks.The assassin on duty came with a food box and changed seats with Yu Yiwei, but he still didn't wait for Yu Bingzi to come out of the cubicle.

"She won't seek death inside, will she?" Yu Yiwei was urged to leave by the assassins on duty, but he was still worried and asked.

The torch mouth ghost sneered: "How could she die so easily? To tell you the truth, since she wanted to hang herself last time, Shui Jiu has threatened her. If she tries to die again, Houtianlou will cut off all the buckles and use them as medicine." The head of the disciples of the Heavenly Mountain Sect, forgive her for not daring to act rashly."

Yu Yi didn't nod, got up heavily and slowly, and moved outside the door.

It was time for dinner, and there was a large dish of pickled noodles in the kitchen. Yu Yi didn't come out of the post house, and after filling the bowl, he mixed it with minced meat and ate a few bites, seemingly casually wandering around in front of the room. .The assassin who was watching from the room slightly turned his eyes away, put the bowl and chopsticks in the weeds, and flew into a thick blade of grass.

The assassin perched on the eaves lowered his head, and saw a pair of bowls and chopsticks on the ground, and only took a few bites of the sharp noodles in the bowl.

"Hey, where did Huo Shiqi go, did you see it just now?"

The other assassin wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Let's go to Chu Gong. Before that, he was begging for rough paper everywhere. And... don't ask this when we are eating."

In the forest, Yu Yiwei sprinted all the way, piercing through the leaves with his head pressed down, and stopped at the pothole panting.He looked around vigilantly, at this time the sun had been bitten off by the mountains, and there seemed to be a black fog like thick ink in the woods, and he couldn't see his fingers.I can't tell north from south, and even the distance is blurred in the darkness.

The sounds of insects rose and fell one after another like a sea tide, and Yu Yiwei stood alone in the vast empty forest.The night was like a large tent, surrounding him completely.

He didn't dare to light the fire, and groped around like a blind man, carefully pushed aside the brocade, and stepped on the rope ladder to go up and down the tunnel.This time he moved quickly, rushed into the pit room, cut open the paper bag with a knife, and took out the matchlock.What he has to do is to pick up the fire rope and plant a long snake made of black fire powder in the tunnel of the mountain post.

What Yu Bingzi said earlier echoed in his ears.There are not only him and Yu Bingzi who are from the Tianshan sect in this mountain post, but also many disciples who are pretended to be medicine men!Yu Yiwei's heart was agitated, and he was extremely anxious and restrained.It seemed that several boulders were pressed against his heart, and it seemed that there was more than one person he wanted to save, but a group of them.

The black fire powder in the pit room scraped off the damp layer on the surface, but the inside was still usable.Yu Yi hid carefully in the pit, blew on the torch, lit the glazed lamp left earlier, and began to rub the match rope under the dim yellow light.

Time is like water, half a month's days are fleeting.The mountain station is cloudy and sunny, sometimes it is doused by strong wind and showers, and sometimes it is sunny and sunny.

During this half month, Shui Shijiu was still missing. Yu Yiwei pounded black fire powder in the warehouse of the Ministry of Fire during the day and went to Yu Bingzi's dormitory for shifts. At night, he sneaked into the tunnel to connect the live wire.

A thick layer of calluses had grown on his hands, which had been rubbed off when he held a wooden pestle for pounding fire powder.Yu Bingzi still ignored him, lost her temper and threw the roller at him so hard that Yu Yiwei almost vomited blood.Yu Yiwei always sneaked away at dinner time, didn't eat a few bites of the meal, and was often dizzy from hunger when connecting the live wire, and fell asleep on the ground.

Later, he learned to be smart, and he often carried a cold and hard pot helmet in his pocket. When he was very hungry, he could still eat the food left in the two tunnels, but it was a pity that most of them were moldy.

The summer heat is over, the autumn water is gurgling, and the grass flowers are falling.

The assassins guarding on the eaves whispered: "That kid Huo Shiqi runs out all day, doesn't he really regard the toilet as his own home?"

The assassins murmured, "Maybe he ate too much spicy food and got post-advanced syndrome and couldn't pull it out..."

In the dark tunnel, a glazed lamp cast a dim light.Yu Yiwei secretly found a soil shovel, dug in from the other end of the tunnel, and used all his strength to break a small gap in the blocked earth and rocks, and connect the two ends of the fire wire through the gap.

Along the way of the tunnel, he wrapped the dry black fire powder into bags and stacked them on the road separately.Yu Yiwei even secretly drove a cart down the tunnel to transport black powder.The packages in the pit room were too heavy for him to carry.

In a blink of an eye, the Ghost Festival has arrived.The weather became a bit cooler, the assassins changed into thick military uniforms, and the mountain post was covered with a blanket of yellow leaves, every step they took seemed to be stepping into a golden ocean.

Every road in the tunnel was thoroughly explored by Yu Yiwei.Now there are bags of black fire powder on every road, just a little fire wire can blow up the foundation of this mountain post, and let a raging fire ignite here.

"Finally..." He collapsed at the bottom of the tunnel, looking at the dark soil wall and let out a long sigh of relief.

Yu Yiwei climbed up from the tunnel, his face covered in dust and a mess.He wiped the sweat from his cheeks. It was just at dawn, and the crimson clouds in the sky were pushed aside by the rising sun. The sun was shining brightly, and thousands of bright lines were drawn among the dense forests.The hour of dawn has come.

In the hazy morning light, Yu Yiwei hid the soil shovel under the fallen leaves, and walked wearily to the post house where he was resting.The cool morning breeze wiped away the dripping sweat from his body.After spending nearly two months in the tunnel, he finally cleared the way for his escape.

As long as he chooses a good day and auspicious day to escape from this mountain station with Yu Bingzi, he will be considered to have accomplished a major event in his life.Now Yu Yiwei feels refreshed all over, the burden that has been on his shoulders seems to be finally unloaded, he just wants to roll into the bed and sleep soundly.

It was very quiet beside the post house, only the sad and cold chirping of birds could be heard.Yu Yiwei drew a bucket of water from the well, washed his face, hands and feet indiscriminately, and there was a layer of dust floating in the water.He stretched himself into the post house and looked around, trying to find where he was sleeping.Assassins often lived together, and he had previously built a makeshift shelter out of straw, stuffing some money and pamphlets with erotic dramas in it.

But when Yu Yiwei raised his head, he froze like an ice sculpture.

There was a man leaning against the beam and pillar, half of his body was immersed in the shadow, but the other half of his face showed a bloodless paleness in the morning light.The man was staring at him silently, blood dripped down from his fingertips and stained the ground.

That's Shui Nineteen.His figure was reflected a little insignificantly in the golden floating dust, like a shallow shadow, which disappeared in the blink of an eye.

An ominous premonition filled Yu Yiwei's heart, he walked over quickly, with cold sweat streaming down his face: "Shui Nineteen...? What are you doing here?"

He went up and pushed the water nineteen. "Doesn't your Ministry of Water have a squatter elsewhere? You haven't shown up for more than a month, did you receive some difficult secret orders?"

When the assassin was held by his shoulders, he suddenly trembled slightly, and he heard Shui Nineteen take a breath.Just when he was wondering, Yu Yiwei only felt the wetness in his palm, let go of his palm a little bit to look, but saw a shocking bright red in the morning light.It was all blood, the blood dripping from Shui Nineteen's body.

"Hey, Shui Nineteen... Shui Nineteen!" Yu Yi's heart was shaken immediately, and he hurried to help him, only to find that Shui Nineteen's body was covered with cuts and bruises, and his breath was like a thread.He looked like a cave puppet whose outer shell had been knocked out, the outer skin was peeling off, and bright red liquid was gurgling out from the inside.

But Shui Nineteen opened his eyes and stared at him with a peaceful smile, as if he was looking forward to his answer.

Shui Jiujiu spoke, his voice hoarse but soft: "Huo Shiqiu. I was with you in Bingzhou... let one person go, and didn't kill people according to the name book, right?"

The abrupt question made Yu Yiwei feel weird.When Shui Jiujiu was alone with him, he would always pester him to call him Xu Fan, as if this name, which was different from Hou Tian Lou, could bring him great happiness.

After a moment of silence, Yu Yiwei bowed slightly, looking straight into his eyes.Shui Shijiu didn't wear a ghost mask, his eyes were dark and cloudy, like mud pools that had been muddied, but shone mistyly in the morning light.The figure of Yu Yiwei was reflected in those eyes, the door of the post house was slightly open, and the golden and stretched branches and autumn leaves outside the window.And - the shadow of the assassin lurking in the dark.

Yu Yiwei stared firmly into Shui Jiujiu's eyes as if struck by a thunderbolt from the clear sky.

In the reflection of Shui Nineteen's pupils, he glimpsed the figures of the assassins peeping furtively outside the window and standing in the verandah with knives.

They were surrounded.