Denghuaxiao

Chapter 232 Going up the mountain
"I will go with you."

Lu Tong was stunned for a moment, thinking he had heard wrongly.

"Didn't you understand?" He looked at her and said, "I'll go with you."

Lu Tong frowned.

This year, there was a heavy snowfall in Southern Jiangsu, and the mountains were completely closed. It was indeed dangerous to go to Luomei Peak, and Li Wenhu's concerns were not exaggerated. If the situation was not urgent, she would not have gone out at this time.

Pei Yunying often travels outside and is more aware of the situation. She thought he would speak out to stop her, but she didn't expect him to say something to go there.

"Are you going to stand like this forever?"

Pei Yunying tilted his head and reminded: "In a moment, once the other medical officers wake up, you won't be able to leave even if you want to."

Lu Chen: "..."

This is true.

If she was reported to Chang Jin, he would definitely stop her.

She stared at Pei Yunying for a moment, and he didn't care much and let her look at him. Lu Tong really couldn't do anything about him, so she turned her eyes away and walked past him: "Let's go."

Pei Yunying raised his eyebrows, as if he was very pleased to see her endure her anger. He slowly caught up with her and took the bamboo basket with the bag in her hand.

Lu Tong turned around, tried twice but failed, and said, "I'll get it myself."

"Doctor Lu." He moved sideways to avoid Lu Tong's hand, raised his chin, and motioned her to look at the mountains in the distance.

"The mountain road is rugged, the snow is deep and the road is slippery. Horses cannot be used. It seems that you plan to walk up the mountain."

He said, "Carrying so many things, do you really think you are a beast of burden?"

This sounded caring, but it was not very pleasant. Lu Tong retorted: "I am very strong, and the commander knows that. I have practiced killing people and burying corpses."

"Then you should save your strength." Pei Yunying followed suit, "It's not time to use it yet."

Lu Chen: "..."

She had nothing to say to this man.

Fortunately, although Pei Yunying took away a lot of heavy objects, he did not take the initiative to carry the medical box for her. When they were about to pass the plague center, Lu Tong pulled Pei Yunying's sleeve. He turned around and Lu Tong pointed to another path not far from the plague center.

"Let's take this road," Lu Tong whispered, "so as not to be discovered by others."

If they were discovered by the medical officers, they would have to fight again. Li Wenhu was actually right. It was a dangerous move and it was indeed not suitable to bring others along. It would have been better if there was no one behind him.

Pei Yunying glanced at Lu Tong and said nothing, letting her pull his sleeve and walk into a small path.

The road is some distance away from the plague station, and the guards on duty at the plague station will not find it.

As Lu Tong walked, he looked back towards the plague center, trying his best to make his figure less conspicuous.

Pei Yunying watched her movements and suddenly laughed.

Lu Tong was puzzled: "What are you laughing at?"

“In fact, even if we are discovered, they will not stop me from taking you up the mountain.”

He sneered, "It's you who's hiding like this. People who don't know would think you and I eloped behind someone else's back."

Lu Tong paused, his eyes falling on the fingers that were pulling his sleeve.

A man and a woman, their behavior was suspicious, furtive, and cautious. When they were caught by someone, they did look guilty as if they were having an affair without any matchmaker.

But this sounds a little familiar.

It seemed that Pei Yunying had also said the same thing to her when they met at night in the Medical Officer's Court.

Lu Tong suddenly shook off his hand and said coldly, "General, you worry too much."

He straightened his sleeves and spoke slowly, "After all, I am unmarried, so my reputation is more important."

Lu Tong held back and swallowed the curse words he wanted to say, then turned around and continued forward: "Let's go."

……

The sky gradually brightened.

The incense burning to ward off plague in the medical officer's quarters was replaced. Lin Danqing rubbed his hands, shrunk his neck and knocked on the door. There was no movement for a long time, so he pushed hard and the door was opened.

She walked in and called out, "Sister Lu!"

There was no one in the house.

There was a piece of paper on the table. Lin Danqing glanced at it casually. Suddenly, his expression changed. The next moment, he ran out of the dormitory holding the paper and shouted, "The doctor, the doctor is in trouble!"

Chang Jin was about to go to the plague center when Lin Danqing called out, startling him: "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Doctor Lu went up the mountain!" Lin Danqing almost threw the paper at Chang Jin's face, "He went there alone early in the morning!"

"what?"

Chang Jin was startled. When he saw the note left by Lu Tong, his face turned pale with anxiety. "How could Doctor Lu go to the mountain alone?"

In fact, Lu Tong had mentioned the idea of ​​going up the mountain to him once before. However, locals Cai Fang and Li Wenhu warned them that Luomeixue Mountain was dangerous and that it was easy to enter but difficult to exit on a snowy day. They repeatedly reminded them not to enter the mountain rashly. Lu Tong was also present at the time.

Lu Tong is usually very rational and calm, why did he lose his mind today?
Chang Jin stamped his feet and said, "Quick, quick, go find Pei Dianshuai. He has a lot of men and horses. If we go now, maybe we can bring Doctor Lu back. Hurry!"

The medical officer who went there came back in less than half an incense stick, crying and saying, "Chief Doctor, Pei Dianshuai is missing..."

"Gone?" Chang Jin was shocked.

Duan Xiaoyan, who followed behind after hearing the news, first went to the Medical Officers' Court to search around and asked curiously, "My brother has not been seen this morning. I thought he was chatting with someone in your Medical Officers' Court. Why is he not here?"

One was a young female medical officer, and the other was a young commander. They both disappeared early in the morning, leaving only a few words behind. Lin Danqing frowned: "Could these two have eloped?"

There are so many such plots in the storybooks, but there is no obstacle to breaking up the couple.

Ji Xun, who was standing in the crowd, looked up with a look of surprise.

Chang Jin said angrily: "Running away to the mountain in such a heavy snow is not called eloping, it's called suicide for love!"

Eloping is not too far-fetched, but committing suicide for love seems unlikely.

Just when everything was going haywire, Pei Yunying's personal bodyguard Qingfeng came in late from outside the door and said, "My lord, accompany Doctor Lu up the mountain."

"Huh?" Everyone turned to him.

Qing Feng said calmly, "Doctor Lu wanted to go to Luomei Peak, and you happened to see him when you went out, so you accompanied Doctor Lu into the mountain."

Everyone in the yard looked at each other.

After a while, Lin Danqing asked, "Is Pei Yunying crazy?"

Pei Yunying was the commander, and he knew better than anyone how dangerous it was to go into the mountains at this time. When he heard that Lu Tong was going up the mountain, he not only did not stop her, but also followed her. He had no brains at all, and it would be better for him to elope.

Duan Xiaoyan's expression suddenly relaxed.

"My brother accompanied me there," he curled his eyes, "Then it's okay."

"Are you out of your mind?" Lin Danqing was shocked. "Aren't you worried that something might happen to them on the mountain?"

"That's my brother," Duan Xiaoyan said confidently, "My brother never does anything he's not sure of, and the one who went up the mountain with him was Doctor Lu. Doctor Lu will be fine."

The young man looked into the distance and saw a hint of red on the distant snowy mountains.

He retracted his gaze and said confidently: "Don't worry, he will take good care of Doctor Lu."

……

There was a commotion in the medical officer's quarters because of what happened to Lu Tong and the other man, but the person at the center of the discussion had no time to pay attention.

The mountain road to Luomei Peak is steep and difficult to navigate. Lu Tong shuttles through it with a medical box on his back, familiarly bypassing every path.

She had lived on this mountain for seven years, and had walked up and down it countless times. Every stone, every tree, and every stream here seemed to be exactly as she remembered it, deeply engraved and unforgettable. In the past years, she had tried countless ways to escape from this mountain. After Yunniang died, she had sworn in front of Yunniang's grave that she would never come back. Unexpectedly, today, she would walk back to her old way with her medical kit on her back.

This time she didn't run away, but came back on her own initiative.

This feels a little strange.

Lu Tong walked very fast, so he didn't notice the gazes of the people behind him.

Pei Yunying was thoughtful.

Luomei Peak is very large, with white snow covering everything. Every place looks very similar to the next, but Lu Tong always seems to be able to accurately identify the differences and find the least effortful path.

It feels like I've lived here for years.

After crossing a steep slope ahead, Lu Tong stopped in front of a green pine tree and turned back to hand him a black scarf.

Pei Yunying raised his eyes.

"You can't keep looking at the snow. You will become temporarily blind after a long time." After she explained, she found a huge rock under a tree and sat down. She took out another piece of black cloth from her bosom and covered her eyes with it.

"You wear this, we'll rest here for a while."

Pei Yunying thought about it for a moment, smiled, said nothing, took the black scarf and covered his eyes, then sat down next to Lu Tong.

The black scarf was made very cleverly, not thick but as thin as a cicada's wing. The snow on the ground turned gray, but they could still see each other through the hazy space, so they wouldn't be blinded.

Lu Tong took out a piece of dry biscuit from his bag and gave it to him.

Pei Yunying pushed it away, "I'm not hungry."

"Are you afraid that I only brought my own portion?" Lu Tong stuffed the cake into his hands and handed him the water bag. "Don't worry, I brought enough. Otherwise, you will starve to death here, and I will have to bury you, which is very laborious."

Pei Yunying: "..."

It had been a long time since Lu Tong had mocked him like this, but the long-lost tone seemed to have taken her back to a time long past, when she had not deliberately distanced herself from him and completely isolated herself from others in coldness.

He glanced at Lu Tong's bag. It was not light and was bulging. He had been carrying it all the way and thought he was carrying something. But now he saw that it was full of dry food and water.

It looks like it's even enough to live in the mountains for more than a month.

No wonder they were so generous with the dry food.

He was a little puzzled, but then he found it funny: "You are really well prepared. Are you planning to live in the mountains?"

Lu Tong: "Do you think I came to the mountain to die? Even if I get lost in the mountain, I won't die immediately." "I can see that." Pei Yunying said lazily: "You are very familiar with this place."

Lu Tong is very familiar with the mountain roads.

She was much stronger than he thought, and she didn't seem tired at all. She seemed used to the rugged and steep mountain roads. It was the same when she walked in the tea garden in Mangming Township last time. She walked very fast, like someone who walked on mountain roads all year round, and as nimble as a light deer.

He picked up a branch and scratched it in the snow twice, and asked casually: "Have you been here before?"

Cai Fang and Li Wenhu mentioned Luomei Peak, saying that it was a barren mountain with rotting corpses in the mass graves. Even the red plum blossoms all over the mountain sounded a bit bloody and weird. It hadn't snowed heavily in southern Jiangsu for many years, and the snow covered large areas of the trail. It was easy for people to lose their direction in it, but Lu Tong had a clear purpose, and it was clear that this was not his first time here.

Lu Tong looked into the distance. The snowy scene covered by the black scarf was not very clear. It was blurry and seemed different from her memory. She was silent for a while and said, "I used to live here."

He was startled and turned his head: "Are you alone?"

"With my master."

Pei Yunying was a little surprised.

After thinking for a long time, he asked, "So, when I first met you six years ago, you were already living on Luomei Peak?"

"Yes."

Pei Yunying looked at her: "Then why didn't you invite me up to sit down? It's so close to your house."

Lu Chen: "..."

She said, "I'm afraid you'll die."

"What?" The man raised his eyebrows: "Your house is a black shop. If I enter your house, I will be abandoned in the wilderness?"

Lu Tong: "Yes, you should thank me."

"It's much more normal for you to talk to me like this." Pei Yunying sneered, "You were avoiding me a while ago, and I thought you really wanted to stop having anything to do with me forever."

Lu Tong paused, and subconsciously looked up at him. Through the black scarf, both of them were hazy, unable to see his expression, and could only hear his voice, but perhaps because they could not see each other's sight, they felt a sense of security from being exposed.

The hand holding the dry food tightened slightly, and Lu Tong changed the subject: "Why are you in the medical officer's quarters today?"

"Didn't I tell you that I suddenly felt unwell last night?"

"lie."

Pei Yunying looked at the scratches left by the branches on the snow and smiled faintly.

Lu Tong was very sad the night Ding Yong died.

She seldom shed tears, and the few times she did, they were all about her family. After the fall of the Qi family, she seemed to have let go of everything and was always erratic. However, the night Ding Yong died, her tears fell on his shoulder, and Pei Yunying suddenly felt her true feelings.

It's like a crack in something that is tightly wrapped. It may be a good thing, but it is also extremely dangerous.

When your sincerity reveals cracks, it becomes fragile.

So he asked Qingfeng to pay more attention to Lu Tong.

Lu Tong went to find a shovel yesterday evening and asked Duan Xiaoyan for some dry food. She didn't eat much on weekdays, and she didn't accept the food Duan Xiaoyan sent her before. This behavior was really unusual. Later, Qingfeng saw her packing her bag outside the window and reported the matter to him.

He came to watch the person himself.

Lu Tong was a person who always did great things quietly. For example, when he went to Shengjing alone to seek revenge, he did it quietly. I always felt that if I didn't keep a close eye on him, I didn't know what unexpected things he would do.

As it turned out, my guess was correct.

Pei Yunying picked up the water bag and asked, "What are you doing up the mountain?"

“Collecting herbs.”

"Collecting medicine?"

"There is a herb called Houbian in the new recipe for curing the epidemic. Houbian's poison is not easy to cure. I remember that there is a stream some distance from the top of Luomei Peak. On the cliff to the north of the stream, there grows redwood vines. The poison of redwood vines is as strong as Houbian's. Maybe we can give it a try."

After Ji Xun told her about Akagi Teng, Lu Tong started to think about it in her mind, thinking that this might be a glimmer of hope.

But it took too long for Pingzhou to deliver it, and Cuicui didn't have time.

She probably didn't either.

She remembered that there was a place on Luomei Peak where red wood vines grew, but that was a long time ago. Now she could only give it a try and explore it once.

Pei Yunying listened and nodded: "I see." After thinking for a while, he said: "So you are familiar with this place because you often collect herbs in the mountains?"

Seeing how familiar she was with Luomei Peak, she seemed to be familiar with every medicinal field.

Lu Chen said "hmm".

Pei Yunying raised his eyelids and asked, "You and your master were together before. What kind of person was your master?"

"You ask too many questions."

"You said too little." He narrowed his eyes, his dark pupils hiding a hint of inquiry, "Why don't you ever talk about yourself?"

Lu Tong seldom talks about himself.

Most of the time, she would only answer when he asked. Her answers were vague, and she was reluctant to say more. She only mentioned Changwu County's past in a few words, and he knew nothing about Lu Tong in southern Jiangsu.

Obviously, the Qi family case had been solved and she no longer had any great hatred, but at certain moments Pei Yunying could still vaguely sense that the other party seemed to be hiding a secret, a deeper secret that she did not want to be discovered.

She was too cunning and used to forbearing, and no matter how she was tested or interrogated, she would not reveal a single clue.

The young man's eyes were so sharp that he seemed to be able to see through people even through the black scarf.

Lu Tong turned her head and changed the subject as if to cover up: "That's not important. As for you, I may not be able to find the red wood vine. If you follow me into the mountains, aren't you afraid of being trapped and dying in the mountains?"

"Don't be afraid." Pei Yunying said nonchalantly, "You have enough things anyway."

“What if I can’t find the way?”

"Then I'll die with you."

Pei Yunying looked at her with a smile and handed her the water bag. "Anyway, you said before in the clinic that you wanted to die with me."

Lu Tong was stunned for a moment and forgot to take the water bag from his hand.

It seemed that even earlier, when he was at the Renxin Clinic, he came to her house to settle accounts with her because of the dead body in Wangchun Mountain that framed Duan Xiaoyan. He was ill-intentioned and full of calculations, and every word he said was a test. At that time, she threatened to die with Pei Yunying, but he was not in a hurry and replied with a smile: "I will only share the same bed with my wife and share the same grave after death."

The words that were used to test me at the beginning, when spoken again now, have a completely different meaning.

She was still in a daze when Pei Yunying's faint smile came from beside her.

"Doctor Lu, if you can't find a way out, we can share a grave after death today."

He spoke nonchalantly, but Lu Tong jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on, and asked, "Who wants to die with you?"

Pei Yunying was stunned for a moment, somewhat puzzled: "It's just a joke, why are you so excited?"

She pulled down the black scarf on her head and glared at him, suppressing her anger.

Pei Yunying sat under the tree, also took off the cloth, stared at her, his eyes flashed slightly.

The relaxed atmosphere was immediately broken, and the surroundings froze for a moment.

"This is not funny." After a stalemate, Lu Tong said coldly: "Don't joke with your life."

Pei Yunying: "You..."

Lu Tong turned around without saying a word, lowered his head to put away the water bag, put on the medical kit, and walked forward without looking back: "Let's get going."

She stood up quickly. Pei Yunying lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. Without saying anything, he picked up the bag and walked forward with her.

Luomei Peak was covered in snow, and apart from the red plum blossoms all over the mountain, it was difficult to tell which place was which. No wonder Cai Fang and Lin Wenhu repeatedly warned that if an ordinary person went into the mountain at this time, nine out of ten would get lost.

The wind and snow gradually got stronger.

The snow on the mountain came faster than that at the foot of the mountain. The flakes of snow whistled and almost blinded people's eyes. Lu Tong didn't pay attention and stepped into a snow pit, stumbling.

"Be careful."

Pei Yunying supported her, and Lu Tong stood still. Suddenly, she felt dizzy for a moment. The dizziness was so strong that she almost couldn't stand. She grabbed his arm to stand firm.

Pei Yunying lowered his eyes: "What's wrong?"

Lu Tong shook his head, suppressing the discomfort he just felt. When his sight swept forward, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"arrive."

Not far ahead, there was indeed a winding stream. The water in the stream had completely frozen and mixed with the snow. It was impossible to see it without careful observation. If you were not very familiar with this place, it would be difficult to find any clues.

Lu Tong ran over quickly with a medical kit on his back.

Pei Yunying followed behind her: "Slow down."

When we got closer, we saw a sloping cliff to the north of the stream, which was covered with a thick layer of snow.

Lu Tong looked at the cliff, feeling uneasy for a moment.

Luomei Peak is very large, and the medicinal herbs and poisons in different places are different. Yunniang always asked her to run around. In the past years, she has memorized every plant and tree on this mountain. She did cut and pick red wood vines here a few years ago, but I don’t know if they are still there now.

She walked to the cliff, put her palm on it, and felt a biting chill in an instant.

Pei Yunying glanced at her, pulled Lu Tong away, and reached out to brush away the fallen snow on the cliff.

The cliff that had been blown away was empty, with nothing on it, except for a withered broken log and half a vine stump, which was wrinkled and attached to the cliff.

Lu Tong was stunned for a moment, then bent over to pick up the broken wood.

The withered vine branch was lifeless in her hand, like a rotten rope, curled up in her palm.

She froze for a moment and looked up at Pei Yunying.

Pei Yunying was startled: "What's wrong?"

“…withered.”

Lu Tong murmured, "The redwood vines here are withered."

Today is a couple with a strong sense of stealing (.