[Marco Polo] Where is Homecoming?

On April [-]th, a group of merchants and envoys came to Dadu, presenting treasures from various places to Khan Jin, and requesting to pass through his territory to develop border trade further afield.

Since the Yuan Dynasty sent troops to wipe out the cults, small countries all over the country got rid of the control, and envoys sent by Jingmu came all the way to congratulate Khan.

The Khan hosted a banquet in the hall to entertain the envoys from all directions. During the meeting, they talked and laughed as usual. When asked about the border situation, they all said that they depended on Khan Meizhi and everything was fine.

Not long after, I saw a group of young women walking into the main hall. It turned out that the King of Persia, Hezan, had sent beautiful women from his country to come and present dances to congratulate.I saw the dancers walking to the center and giving salutes. On both sides of the carpet, there were several musicians with different costumes and styles, each holding a unique musical instrument. The dancers danced to the music. They wore tight dance clothes, □Looking at Xiaoman's waist, shoulders and arms, but seeing her graceful dancing posture, her body is covered with necklaces and jewels, and the jewels in the court rise and fall to shine.The tallest dancer in the middle is twirling rapidly on the Canaan epiphyllum in the center of the carpet, stepping vertically and horizontally, but her feet never come out of the edge of the petals.Eyebrows slanted, eyes waved smartly, there was a lot of tenderness between Gu Pan, and all the guests were drunk for a while, and everyone applauded.

After drinking for three rounds, I saw an envoy come out with a long box and come to the seat.

"The Lord of Loulan got a sword by chance, but he didn't dare to hold it by himself. He heard that the real gold prince is wise and brave, so I dedicate it to His Royal Highness the prince."

As he spoke, he opened the wrapped dark red brocade, only to see lotus flowers spewing out from the glazed jade box, and the gold rings were engraved to reflect the bright moon, and then the lid was opened, only to see the light and dark green snake color, and the pieces of green tortoise scales. A good sword in sheath.

Zhenjin's expression froze, he got up to take it, raised his wrist slightly and drew his sword out of its sheath.

However, at the moment when the sword was unsheathed, everyone saw a ray of light pouring out from the edge of the sword, sliding down the blade, and scattering around.

"Good sword!"

The prince was overjoyed, and immediately took his seat with his sword, his expression hard to hide.

The atmosphere of the whole banquet was harmonious. After the banquet, Khan ordered relevant officials to arrange board and lodging, and the banquet ended in a peaceful atmosphere.

Zhen Jin was the last one to walk out of the hall. He stood in front of the hall gate for a while, then called a guard, untied his sword and gave it to him.

"Send it to the Latin."

After a pause, he said calmly:

"I have too many swords to count, so this one will be rewarded to him."

The soldiers took orders, turned and went to the Latin residence.

"slow."

"Does your Highness have any orders?"

Zhen Jin hesitated for a moment, then walked up with his hands behind his back.

"I'll go too."

"I'm here today to say goodbye to you..."

The interior is dark and yellowish.

"We can't go on like this anymore."

He said with his head down, not looking into her eyes.

"If you continue like this, it will be irresponsible to you..."

"We have no future."

They are not from the same world, and there is a world of difference between them.If her clan hadn't been looted and he had come here with his father in business, their lives would have had no intersection.

However, the woman just stared at him for a long time.

"You...you have someone else in your heart?"

Marco didn't speak.

Kuo Kuozhen still stared at him steadfastly, with sad and desolate emotions slowly spreading in his heart.

"I understand."

There was indescribable jerkyness in her voice, and she couldn't help it when she watched the Latin man turn around and leave slowly.

"Marco!"

He stopped.

The woman stepped forward and leaned on his shoulder. The Latin man wanted to break free, but there seemed to be an invisible force that fixed his figure.

"I won't bother you in the future."

She leaned on him tightly and couldn't help but shed tears.Those warm liquids stained that beautiful face with a sad mood.

"... Please grant me the last time..."

He suddenly let out a sigh from the chest.

Even if tonight is destruction, it doesn't matter if it's fate, calamity, evil, or obstacle.

The moonlight disappeared into the deep sea-like night, and the dark clouds slowly moved across the sky like huge isolated cities, casting turbulent shadows on the earth.The whole palace was as silent as a tomb.

The cold wind slowly blows from the night, carrying cold water vapor, covering everything with white frost.

The Latin quarters were empty.Zhen Jin sat on the cold bed, and he sat there motionless in the darkness, like a statue.A guard stood at the door.

From dusk to late night, he had been waiting here for two full hours, but he never saw that person return.

He suddenly felt a bone-piercing cold, like a biting wind rushing through the bottom of his heart, desolate and hasty.

It took him a long time to get up and walk towards the door.

When he came to Kuo Kuo Zhen's residence, two maids were sitting in the front hall and taking a nap, when they saw the prince approaching, they hurriedly got up and opened the door.

He walked in, only to see an empty bed.He looked at it for a long time, then slowly turned sideways, frowned and looked behind him.

"Where did she go?"

"Slaves don't know!"

The two maids hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed.

"When is she usually not in the palace?"

The maid looked at each other, and it took a long time before she answered boldly.

"Recently, I'm absent almost every day..."

Zhen Jin glanced at the soldiers guarding the gate and stepped out of the palace. Just a few steps away, he heard two short screams behind him.

Someone came up and dragged away the body of the maid.

"Your Highness, where are we going next?"

The voice of the soldiers asking around came from the side, Zhen Jin thought for a while, and his eyes suddenly became sharp.

"Go to the library."

The clouds quickly rolled and obliterated the sky, the moonlight and starlight all disappeared, leaving only thick darkness between the sky and the earth.Occasionally, nocturnal birds scurried across the night sky, leaving their hoarse chirping clinging to the frozen sky.

The Khan Palace library has been in disrepair for a long time.Since the Yuan Dynasty broke the Southern Song Dynasty, all the astronomical instruments and ritual books in the treasury were captured to Dadu. Among them, there are many classics from the Song Dynasty and even the entire previous dynasty, mixed with Tibetan scriptures, which are densely packed on the shelves. The passage of time and neglect has covered it with a thin layer of dust.There is a smell of dust and smoke all around.

He walked silently in the aisle, but when he turned around the last row of bookshelves, he suddenly didn't dare.

He didn't know what he was facing.

The faint candlelight reflected two figures on the ground.

He finally took a silent breath and walked out.

In front of him was a nightmare that he could not shake off for the rest of his life.

She and him are like glue, rubbing each other's ears.

When Kuo Kuo really looked up and saw the prince, he suddenly let out a scream and pushed the person in front of him away. The Latin man turned his head, his expression seemed to be choked by a ghost in an instant!

Zhen Jin stood in front of them, his face shrouded in a turbulent hostility.He pursed his lips tightly, trembling all over.

"Your Highness..."

Kuo Kuo was really at a loss, the prince suddenly turned his head to look at him, and suddenly squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth.

"roll."

The woman looked at the Latin man in a daze, but Marco quickly calmed down and signaled Kuo Kuo to leave.

The two of them were left in the huge library.

Zhen Jin stared at the person in front of him.

He suddenly knew what was causing his coldness. It was an uneasy premonition and deep fear overflowing from the bottom of his heart.

Marco forced himself to look up at the real gold, but what he saw were ghost-like eyes, and there was a dark and fierce fire in it, as if it was going to burn in hell!

Such a terrifying gaze actually made him shiver in his heart.

Every time this look appeared, someone was bound to die.

"sword."

The little prince gave a low cry, and the guard came up and handed him the sword.

With the long sword in hand, his whole body was suddenly filled with endless murderous aura.

The brilliance was fleeting, and blood splashed into the air and onto a row of bookshelves behind him.The guard fell to the ground with an inconceivable expression on his face, he twitched twice and then fell silent.Marco was stunned, but in the next second, Jianfeng pointed at his throat.

He lowered his eyes slightly, only seeing the clear inscription deep in the edge.That is indeed a good sword.The prince looked at him.The tip of the sword trembled, as if trying to suppress the turbulent emotions.

Marco couldn't remember how many times he was held against by a sword by real gold, but this time, he might really cut his throat.

He looked into Zhen Jin's eyes, and suddenly felt despair and deep exhaustion.Because he knew that all their affection and trust had been shattered in this fiasco.

The eyes of the person in front of him seemed angry and sad, his hands were trembling violently, and he could hardly hold the sword.As if he heard something suddenly shatter in his heart, he let out a mournful howl and threw the sword at his feet.

He couldn't be cruel, couldn't make a move, couldn't kill the person in front of him who never belonged to him

What my father said was right, he was always too weak a person, no matter how brave and decisive he was on the battlefield, he couldn't hide the fact that he was weak in his bones.

He finally staggered away.

After the dying dusk, the lonely people settle down.

Marco sat on the edge of the bed, motionless.

He no longer remembered how he walked out of the library and walked through the Khan Palace to his home, nor did he remember how long he had been sitting there, his mind seemed to be busy and empty.

After a long time, he slowly turned his head and saw the sword beside him.

He thought of the guard that True Gold had killed.Even in the saddest and most desperate time, he still protects him.

There was a faint knock on the door, and a man dressed as a soldier appeared at the window.

"Master Polo, the Great Khan announces you to go there."

Kuo Kuo Zhen appeared in front of his eyes again.

If she was there, she would definitely persuade herself to run away again.He thought with a wry smile, and slowly stood up.

Since the death of his mother, he has lived in fear all his life. When he was young, he was afraid that his father would not return one day. As an adult, he followed his father on a journey, worrying about sandstorms and being attacked by robbers all the way. , worried about everything he encountered, worried that he would die outside like this, and after coming to Dadu, he still couldn't get rid of this ever-present fear, he didn't know which bright morning his life would end Or which dusk was covered with the setting sun, just as he didn't know that his father would really abandon him one day.

This time, however, he decided not to run away from his fate.

The hall of the Khan Palace was dark and gloomy.

Marco stood under the seat.The above did not speak for a long time, and the sound of heavy breathing echoed throughout the hall. Standing in the shadows, he suddenly felt a little suffocated.

After a long time, he said:

"Your Majesty, I must confess to you..."

"Oh Latin, I've got you a very good job."

As if he had just realized the existence of others, Kublai shook the map in his hand, and then put it down.

"My empire spans the world, but there is always a shortage of inspectors, especially in the southern region. I need someone knowledgeable enough to understand the production situation there. This job is most suitable for you adventurous travelers But that's all."

He looked down at him.

"Do you want to?

The Latin man couldn't recover for a moment, the Khan summoned him, so it was for this matter?

He hesitated, knowing what it would mean to him if he accepted the position.At that moment he choked up, the little prince's desperate eyes and his mournful voice before he left were intertwined in his mind, every time he thought about it, it was as if. . .He looked up at the top of the temple with wet eyes, suddenly sighed very lightly, and saluted upwards.

"I will, Your Majesty."

"Have you thought about it? This work is very hard, and of course I will reward you handsomely."

However, the Latin man just nodded humbly when he heard the sound, but there was indescribable exhaustion in his voice.

"It has been the honor of my life to play for Khan."

Khan stared at him for a while.

"Very well, Latin, your loyalty and courage are commendable."

He said that Marco nodded again, and then retreated under the watch of Khan.

After an unknown amount of time, Empress Chabi slowly emerged from behind the throne.She looked at the back of the Latin man leaving, and suddenly said:

"Did you tell Zhenjin that kid?"

"not yet."

The queen sighed, "I'm afraid he won't be able to bear it..."

Khan suddenly turned his head to look at her, "This is the decision you made at the beginning..." "It's me, it's me, I didn't deny it..."

Queen Chabi hurriedly stated, Khan turned his head back and looked ahead.

"...I thought the Latin would refuse, but he didn't. My son is so infatuated with him, and the reward is nothing more than that."

The queen comforted her husband.

"I think it's time for True Gold to focus on bringing an offspring to the Golden Family..."

Khan snorted in agreement and fell into deep thought.

He rode his horse and stood on a high slope, looking back at the entire capital behind him, seeing those high and low scattered lights flickering under the sky, like a distant and vast galaxy.

The vast land of the Central Plains is not far ahead. After crossing the Yellow River and going south, you will find the Central Plains and Jiangnan.

Prosperous like brocade, prosperous like a dream.

However, he knew that in his heart, there was indeed something that stayed here forever and could never come back.

His life has already embarked on a trajectory he could not predict, but the things he wanted to be with all his life have finally slipped away without a trace like quicksand between his fingers.

tbc

The author has something to say: I really can't go on with the Frost Flower Shop, which is applied at the end, please pat it down, friends! !

☆, Yu Guang

It took many, many years before he realized that everything between them was over before it had begun.

In these years, he has performed his duties meticulously, traveled all over the Central Plains, and every time he passed by, he compiled the political, economic, geographical conditions, customs, water, soil and human conditions there into letters and sent them back to Dadu one by one.

As for Zhen Jin, he has spent his whole life fighting against Ahmed with his Chinese law theory, dealing with various court strife, mixed with conspiracies and tricks that made him tired of coping, and coercing him in gentle words. He was exhausted physically and mentally by the open and dark arrows, and exhausted all the tricks.When he was rarely free, he would read the letters sent back by Marco over and over again, rubbing the yellowed paper over and over again until they became old and wrinkled.Those simple words were hot at his fingertips, and the scenes he wrote seemed to be presented one by one, as if he was right in front of his eyes, describing everything he saw to him vividly and patiently, just like he did back then.

There is often a scene in front of his eyes: the handsome man sitting on the sand dune, the gorgeous scenery is connected into one piece under his pen, the sunset is slowly sinking behind him, his blue pupils seem to be sinking An ocean of billions of stars.

He already felt that his body was gradually not as good as before. Since the death of Queen Chabi, those childhood illnesses that he thought would never happen again gradually returned to his body, torturing him and eroding him. There is not much time for myself.

He could feel his joy through the text, he imagined him crossing the desert in rags, endless wind and sand passing by before his eyes; clothes.He can see that he has experienced thousands of winds and rains outside, traveled all over the vast land of the Central Plains, and lived in a variety of colors and vitality, but only he was left to wither and decay in this palace.

How much he wanted to tell him personally that he was no longer resentful, but that person never came back.

Just as some people in Dadu sighed sadly, some people in Suzhou and Hangzhou thousands of miles away were suddenly moved.

Marco put down his pen, feeling some stinging in his eyes.Maybe it was too long to write today, so he put down his pen.

This is the tenth year he has been living abroad.China has a vast land and abundant resources. Over the years, he traveled around. He visited prosperous city-states and passed through deserted seas. Worrying but struggling to survive, three thousand red mountains and rivers, eight thousand miles of roads and moons, he ran everywhere exhausted but full of joy, every place has something that surprised him, the customs and customs of each place Let him glow with endless vitality, but whenever night comes, he feels full of loneliness. He misses Venice, the flowing water and the bells there, and the aunt and old father who raised him; , I miss the waist-high grass and rolling mountains there, and the scattered lakes in autumn are like forgotten stars, which seems to be a second hometown for him.

Occasionally he would think of that person, the scene of them fleeing side by side, life and death passing by like the wind; thinking of those bitter or lingering nights, he whispered softly in his ear, and finally he still chose to continue wandering,

Sometimes he looked at the thousands of stars in the vast universe, but he didn't know which one was shining on his figure.

Such a scene often appeared in front of his eyes, that person was walking in the depths of the long, long palace, suddenly turned around slowly and raised his eyes to look at him, the eyes were indescribably cold and lonely.

The road is long and the sea is vast.

You and I are separated from each other.

In the end, they were still like the two clouds at different heights. After meeting for a short time, they each went to completely different trajectories.

There is no intersection in their lives anymore. Prince Zhenjin spent his whole life fighting against Ahmad with his Hanfa theory, and finally brought him down in 1282. He was also framed by others, and eventually became sick with fear. . In 1286, when Marco Polo returned to Dadu to pay homage to the Great Khan, he was already dying. Before his death, his three sons were guarding his couch. When Marco went to see him, he sent his three sons away and signaled Marco to come forward.

Ma Ke sat in front of his couch and held his hand, Zhen Jin turned his head to look at him with difficulty.His face has long since lost the sharpness of his youth, and the traces of the years have settled in his eyes, but the heroism of that year can be vaguely seen.

"...don't worry about me, my friend. Death is a lonely journey."

With his lips parted, he read slowly.

It was as if something suddenly collapsed in his heart, making him let go of all his grudges at this moment.

Marco took out the rusty cross from his arms and put it in the palm of the real gold, held his hand and let him hold it tightly.

"...That time, I didn't kill him..."

"What? What did you say?"

Marco leaned closer and asked.

"Naur...I didn't kill him..."

"...I let him go, cut off the head of a condemned prisoner, and brought it back..."

The prince was as angry as a thread, as if every word he said made him weaker.However, Marco remembered that it was the little prince who was taken as a hostage and detained in Dadu from the Gelan Tribe of Huihe.

At that moment, all the distant and secret memories suddenly revived, and thousands of emotions in his heart whizzed past like a storm, which made him unable to breathe for a while.

Oh Naur...Marco closed his eyes, what a distant memory it was, so far away that even he who had never lost his memory was already blurred.

However, real gold is remembered for a lifetime.

When he lowered his head again, Zhen Jin had stopped talking, and he was looking straight at the zenith, looking up at the changing sky of floating clouds.Marco looked at him, watched the light in his eyes gradually fade away, knowing that the person he trekked across mountains and rivers to Dadu 17 years ago, who at first sight looked like a flower in the high mountains, just went to a world he didn't know.Marco stood up, wiped his eyelids, leaned over and kissed his fingertips slowly.He was still holding the silver cross in his hand, already stiff.

At last he returned to his ancestors, the ancient spirits calling him home from the depths of the earth.The grassland there is like a green ocean, the lake is like scattered stars, the idyll is as clear as a river, and the sky is as blue as the legend.Where men don't bleed in war and women don't suffer in childbirth.The moonlight is no longer cold, and the wind and snow are no longer raging.

The Latin looked at him quietly for a while, and then retreated. Sanga and his three sons rushed into the inner room. Marco heard crying behind him before he walked a few steps. He raised his head and looked Skies sloping to the north.

Tall grass grew wildly in one direction, the mountains in the distance undulated and overlapped, and the surrounding air suddenly became bitter.The strong wind rushing between the sky and the earth shook the sight, and everything was blown into a hollow appearance by the wind.

At the far end, someone began to sing an elegy in Mongolian, and the singing was flying high under the sky.

"...The thorns are covered with vines, and the weeds are all over the hillside. My beloved is buried here. Who will accompany him?"

"The summer days are long, and the winter nights are bleak. Wait until a hundred years later, and I will accompany you to sleep forever."

…………

Bu Erzhi Jin Zhenjin, Kublai Khan's favorite son, died in 1286 at the age of 43.After the death of his beloved son, Kublai Khan became depressed, began to drink heavily, and his health deteriorated. Rebel forces in all directions tended to rise, and the country showed signs of decline.

By 1289 A.D., the fourth year of Prince Zhenjin's death, Polo had stayed in Dadu for three years, and kept it for three years.Three years later, he wrote a petition to the elderly Khan, willing to escort Princess Kokozen to marry Persia, and at the same time return to his hometown of Italy. Although the Khan was very reluctant, he finally agreed to this request.

When he was about to leave Dadu, he looked back at the gradually receding city in the dim lights, and at the place where his entire youth was buried. In a trance, that person seemed to be standing in front of him again, with the stretch of sand dunes and boundless sand behind him. In the sky, the strong wind blows everything to haste, and his eyes in the fluttering blue hair are the desolation he has never seen before.Just tell him, go away and never come back.

Suddenly, there was a deep pain in his heart, as if some invisible thread tied his heart here, and every time he rode the horse away, he was torn apart bloody.

This time, I'm afraid I won't come back again.

Traveling across half the world to meet you, wandering half of my life in troubled times, but finally failed to grow old with you.

Marco and his party set off in March and escorted the princess to Persia in January of the following year. They returned to Italy in 1295 and brought back the treasures rewarded by the Khan. They became very rich for a while, but were imprisoned for failing to participate in the naval battle. , where he spent a long time. In his later years, he dictated his life experience to Lu Tisiqian, describing in detail what he had seen and heard in Dadu and the local customs, and Lutisiqian compiled it into a manuscript. , and voted for the publisher after he was released from prison, so that the famous "Marco Polo's Travels" came into being.The mysterious country and strange culture described in the book are like the ignorant twilight in the dark, which set off the frenzied and persistent exploration of the East by the West for centuries.Following the contours of the waves and the guidance of the stars, those devout followers came across the long mountains and the Silk Road, and poured their lifetime dreams into this land.However, there are only a few words in the book about Prince Zhenjin:

"...the four queens gave birth to 22 sons for the Great Khan. Among them, Zhenjin was the oldest. He was kind-hearted and brave. He had shown his bravery and decisiveness in several wars and was the seat of the Great Khan. The well-deserved successor."

I can't be buried with you in this life, but I hope my ashes can float to your grave after death.

Finish