Still waiting for Zhaoyang

chapter 36
With a sarcasm hanging from the corner of her mouth, she wiped away her tears, bowed towards Zijin, and said detachedly, "Then I won't disturb His Highness's rest."

Zijin looked at Jingtan's back and sighed, born in this world, one will encounter many involuntary encounters in one's life.Even if gods and Buddhas enter the world, they can't save everyone, so he just wants to protect Xia Yue, this life is enough.

It was this thought that made him dare not turn back step by step on such a difficult and difficult road.

After returning to the room, Zijin summoned Chu Zhong: "How is the matter?"

Chu Zhong replied: "According to what the eldest brother Fei Ge said in his letter, he can arrive at the Imperial Capital today."

The next day, Jingtan resigned silently.Her lively and willful temperament turned out to be a different person.The southern region was in turmoil, and Zijin wanted to keep her, but he swallowed the words. How could he have the face to tell her to give up what was in her heart.

Afraid that she would be in danger, Zijin led someone to send her out of the cloud.Unexpectedly, he met a refugee who had escaped from Huaizhou on the road. He was afraid that she would be accidentally injured, so he sent her to Xiduo again.

In the past two days, the rain in the clouds has stopped, but the mud on the post road has long been soaked by the rain.Sitting in the car, Jingtan felt dizzy.

She couldn't help feeling sick, so she yelled to get out of the car and take a rest.

Zijin was originally riding in front, but when she saw this situation, she dismounted and went back to look after her.

After getting out of the car, Jingtan ran to a boulder beside the post road, held on to the stone wall, and vomited. After vomiting for a while, she felt a little better in her heart, but she smelled a foul stench.

She covered her nose in disgust, and was about to go back, but she didn't want to trip over something in the grass, causing her to stumble.She steadied her steps, looked into the grass, and screamed.

Zijin and Chu Zhong, one seeing and the other hearing, drew their swords and ran almost at the same time.

Jingtan threw herself on Zijin's chest, not daring to look back, she stretched out her hand tremblingly and pointed at the grass behind her: "Dead man..."

When everyone looked carefully, they found that there were several corpses lying scattered in the knee-high grass, including men and women.He probably escaped floods and wars from the wilderness. There were no obvious fatal wounds on his body. It was unknown whether he died of starvation or illness. There was a stench, and there was not even a piece of good meat on his face. It was obvious that he had been eaten by wild animals in the countryside. It was one of the babies who was almost bitten to pieces, leaving only half of the head.

Jingtan felt her stomach churning, and she vomited again with a "wow".

But she just vomited just now, and now there is only acid water vomited out.

Chu Zhong looked around and found that there were still several corpses in the grass here, fearing that everyone would be infected with the plague, he urged Zijin to go on the road.

Zijin stared blankly at the corpse with an elusive look on his face.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion on the post road.

Two horses were chasing a woman on the post road. The woman knew she couldn't run, so she ran towards the mountain road, but one of them accidentally rolled down the slope, and her forehead hit the stone tip, bleeding profusely.But immediately those two people still didn't let her go, lifted her up and threw her on the horse's back.

After getting Zijin's permission, Chu Zhong sent two guards beside him to chase after him.

Zijin, together with Chu Zhong, protected Jingtan and followed behind.

After turning over this slope, I saw a convoy of five or six vehicles on the post road in front of me. I probably brought several servants with me for the safety of the road.

The fleeing woman dismounted from her horse, knelt on the ground, covered her face, and wept bitterly.A middle-aged fat man got out of the carriage and scolded the woman loudly.

Chu Zhong protected Zijin and Jingtan from causing trouble, felt that the ragged woman was very pitiful, and couldn't bear to see her die, so he just asked someone to go over and ask what happened.

The middle-aged fat man was full of anger: "Just now we were drinking water and resting here. My family member saw this woman sneaking around, and suddenly ran away, thinking that she stole something from our car, so he chased her. It turned out that she was not a thief. , but stuffed his own flesh and blood into the car." As he spoke, the fat man carried a two or three-year-old child off the car.The child didn't know whether he was sick or asleep, and remained motionless.

The woman didn't answer, but just took the child and continued to cry, almost crying out of breath.

Chu Zhong couldn't bear it and said: "Sister-in-law, if you are being bullied, tell us and we will help you."

Seeing Chu Zhong's burly figure and his subordinates who are also agile martial arts practitioners, the fat man felt a little embarrassed, and hurriedly explained: "You bitch, you're talking about it. Did you just take advantage of us to rest? Just throw the child away?"

Zijin followed along with Jingtan.

Chu Zhong gave Zijin an overview in a few words.So Zijin looked at the woman on the ground and asked softly, "Sister-in-law, is what he said true?"

The woman nodded, covered her face and cried even harder.

The fat man was also patient in order to prove his innocence, and it took a lot of time for someone to ask about it.

It turned out that this woman was originally from Huaizhou, and her husband died in battle when he was under King Huai and attacked Canghuang.More than a month ago, because the land was occupied by the war, the family was also flattened, the crops failed, and my parents-in-law starved to death one after another.She would not be able to live alone with her son, so she wanted to go back to her natal family in Canghuang.Unexpectedly, after going through untold hardships, I finally arrived at my hometown, but saw that the whole village was flooded into a vast ocean, and it was full of floating corpses when viewed from the mountain.

She didn't know what to do, she only heard that the nearby Yunzhong took in refugees and opened warehouses to distribute relief.She dug wild vegetables along the way, and fled towards the clouds with her children.

But the day before yesterday, the child was ill, and she couldn't walk, and she couldn't take him to see a doctor, maybe both mother and child would die here.At this moment, she saw Fatty's convoy approaching from afar, and knowing that this was a rich and well-fed family, she hoped that some kindness would adopt the child so that the child could survive, so she secretly stuffed the child into the car.

The woman cried while talking, and everyone else was moved when they heard it.

Chu Zhong glanced at Jingtan.

Jingtan snorted coldly and remained silent, still polishing her soiled shoes on the grass.

Zijin kept staring at the woman's mouth, and every word she cried just now fell on his heart, as if he was being cut with a knife, his hands and feet were cold.

Before Zijin could speak, the fat man took the initiative and said, "Sister-in-law, we are also going to Yunzhong. Get in my car quickly, and we will take the child to the doctor first."

Chu Zhong took out a bag of silver and handed it to the fat man, asking the fat man to take care of the mother and child.

After the two teams bid farewell to each other, they parted ways.

Jingtan raised the curtain on the carriage and said, "Brother Yu, birth, old age, sickness and death are destiny. They themselves cast the wrong baby. Don't blame my father. It's possible that without my father, they can live happily." Ruyi is at ease? It’s just a bunch of untouchables.”

Zijin looked at Jingtan, but said nothing.

Seeing him like this, Jingtan sneered: "Are you and Uncle Jiu some kind of good people? But it's all for your own selfish desires."

Before parting, Jingtan changed his face again, and said with tears in his eyes: "Brother Yu, don't you feel bad when you see me die?"

Zijin replied lightly: "Then you go back to Yunzhong with me, and I will definitely protect you."

Looking at the back of Zijin and his group going away, Jing Tan asked the confidant of Duke Huai who came to pick her up: "If you ambush and attack in a short while, how sure are you of being able to catch Wei Ranyu?" The look, there is no shadow of the cuteness just now.

The man answered honestly: "The personal guard next to King Yanping is very skilled in martial arts. The people under him are very inferior in number and strength, and they are not sure. What's more, the area here is sensitive. If David's soldiers are attracted, I'm afraid that he will It hurt the princess."

"Forget it then." Jing Tan said, "I had prepared the drugs, but I didn't expect them to be very cautious along the way."

Immediately, the man presented another letter saying: "This is a handwritten letter from the Lord to the Princess."

Jingtan unpacked and read it hastily, and after thinking for a while, he ordered: "My father told us not to go back to Huaizhou."

"Then?" The other party was puzzled.

"You mobilize people and follow me northward." Jing Tan said.

four

At night, Zijin, who returned to the cloud, sat drinking alone under the moon. He had never drank alcohol since he was a child, but since he was hungover in front of Xia Yue last time, he actually fell in love with it.

After Liang Wang found him, he sat down and poured himself a glass of wine: "Yu'er, don't blame Sixth Uncle for being cruel."

Zijin shook his head: "Sixth Uncle took care of my nephew, how can I blame Sixth Uncle?" He had already noticed that Jingtan was definitely not as simple as they saw.

"Then why are you drinking?"

Zijin picked up the wine cup and looked at the clear night sky in the cup.

He lost his parents when he was young, and seeing Jingtan like this today, he suddenly recalled himself back then, and the mother and child on the hillside today.He was not good at words, and he didn't know how to confide his depression to others, so he drank alone here, and after a while, he could only utter a thousand words: "Suddenly thought of my father and mother."

King Liang let out a long sigh and drank the wine in his cup in one gulp.

Zijin got up, walked to the courtyard, looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

In the spring night, the moonlight is bright.

"Yu'er." Liang Wang called him from behind, but he didn't notice, so Liang Wang walked up to him with a wine cup, touched him, and asked him again when he turned around, "Yu'er, do you have something on your mind?" ?”

"Is there someone in Sixth Uncle's heart that he misses every day?"

"I had it when I was young, and I was younger than you at that time. Later, the court changed, and I was forced to go to Liangzhou to become a feudal clan. I couldn't return, so I got married. Later, I thought it would be good to be alone, so I didn't think about it." I want to get married." After speaking, Liang Wang smiled helplessly.

The two returned to the table and sat down.

King Liang's expression changed, and he asked again: "Now that Xu Jingye has been eliminated and King Huai's power is gone, what are your plans?"

Xu Jingye was the murderer who personally killed the first prince and his wife. Now that he finally died, King Liang was very happy.

"If you have the heart to compete with him all over the world, you can do it now. King Huai is in deep trouble and has lost his energy. If you go to give charcoal in the snow, he will definitely follow your lead and then contact King Wu. Although it is risky to go directly to the imperial capital, But we use the Hengshui River as the boundary to recharge our energy and store up energy, and divide the world with him, and when the time is right, it is not impossible to send our troops northward."

Zijin was bathed in the moonlight and remained silent for a while.

Liang Wang frowned: "Yu'er, you are controlled by Shang Rui because of Miss Min?" He knew about Shang Rui's letter to Zijin.

Zijin tilted his head: "Uncle Six, I did have the heart to compete with him. Although he never personally killed the emperor's grandfather, father and mother, all of this was caused by him."

Hundreds of people in the Prince's Mansion were wiped out overnight; the loyal ministers who defended the first heir in the court were either dead or demoted; King Liang was alone in a desolate place like Liangzhou; I can't write it either; Xia Yue has been charged as the daughter of a rebellious minister, and dare not reveal her real name to others; he is deaf and cannot hear, and even drags his beloved woman to humiliation.

"But is it really right to do this?" A trace of confusion flashed in his clear eyes.

"Yu Er, your heart is pure and kind. You know that there is no right or wrong in many things in this world, there is only victory or defeat. The winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit. If you want to protect your woman, you don't have to retreat every step of the way. It is to become a winner. When your wings are full, take out what Wei Shangrui needs, and he will definitely exchange it with pleasure."

Zijin remained silent.

The last quarter moon in the night was gradually covered by the drifting clouds, and the light in front of him also dimmed.He has always disliked darkness, so he got up and lit the lantern on the porch and hung it on the pillar.

He stared blankly at the light in the lantern, and after a while turned around and said to King Liang: "I think I was wrong."

Liang Wang was surprised: "Yu'er, why did you say that?"

"If it weren't for my momentary enthusiasm, how could the Southern Territory become what it is now?"

"No," Liang Wang categorically retorted, "This is all the result of the joint efforts of King Huai, Empress Dowager Xu, Xu Jingye, and Wei Shangrui. What's wrong with you?"

He got up and said to Zijin: "Do you think that without you, Duke Huai would not rebel? When he couldn't find you, he tried me many times, and he even chose a substitute to pretend to be me." You. He doesn't need you, he only needs the name Wei Ranyu, even if you died that year, he can still succeed at will. He was originally ambitious, and the battle with Wei Shangrui will only happen sooner or later!"

After Zijin watched King Liang finish speaking, he quietly turned his attention to the lantern in front of him. The orange light came out from the paper, illuminating his profile like a flawless white jade.

"A gentleman of mine asked me before, what is the way of the world. I was still young at the time, and the answer was righteousness. A gentleman regards righteousness as the highest priority. In the world, those who attack righteousness with evil will perish. Therefore, the way of the world is righteousness. .” Zijin muttered to himself.

"What about now?" Liang Wang walked under the lamp.

Zijin didn't answer him, but just told Liang Wang what he saw on the road to Jingtan today.He spoke very slowly, intermittently, and his words were extremely simple, but it made others hear an inexplicable pain.

Upon hearing this, King Liang sighed, returned to the table, poured himself a glass of wine, and drank it with his head raised.

At this time, a moth jumped into the lantern, fluttered, flapped its wings like a blind man and rampaged inside, the flame flickered.

Zijin took down the lantern, blew on the fire, and released the moths.

Just when the eyes fell into darkness again, the last quarter moon suddenly jumped out from the clouds.

Zijin looked up at the sky, then looked at King Liang and said, "If you ask me again now, I will answer that the young and orphans grow up, the crowd does not overpower the few, the elderly thrive, and father and son protect each other. This is what I want." The way of the world."

When he said these words, his expression was not disturbed, and his tone was very calm. Standing under the night, he was as bright as a bright moon, his body was like Zhilan, and he didn't look like a person in the world.

It was already late at night, he had already washed and prepared to take a rest, after tossing and turning, he put on his clothes and came here for a drink, because he didn't see anyone else, and his hair was not tied up, so he let his black hair hang behind him, and the night wind blew, and the hair moved slightly , It actually gives people an illusion that they are going to the moon.

"You really have exactly the same temperament as the first prince." After Liang Wang finished speaking, he looked at the empty cup in his hand and sighed slightly, "Then how did you know that Wei Shangrui is Mingjun?"

"In the letter, Uncle Jiu not only promised to be the father and king, but also Yu Sheng was innocent. He also mentioned to me the trip to the great road. At that time, I was thinking of Xia Yue's comfort, but I didn't take it to heart. Looking back tonight, It actually feels like a bosom friend.”

Upon seeing this, the king of Liang hesitated to speak.

Zijin lowered his eyes and said, "I know, he is only half true to me, and half false."

"As long as you can see clearly." Liang Wang said.

"I have a mentor in Jinluo, named Qi An, who I admire very much."

"That Qi An in front of Duke Huai?" Liang Wang was surprised.

"Yes, he is the gentleman who asked me what is the way of the world. After hearing my answer, he only sighed that I was too young. Now, Uncle Six may not know that he has assisted Uncle Ninth. Mr. Qi With a mastery of knowledge, he is lonely and unpredictable, but he is determined to entrust his life to Uncle Jiu. I don't know Uncle Jiu, but I know Mr. Qi, so," he looked at King Liang, "I want to give it a try."

King Liang clenched his fists, patted his forehead lightly, and remained silent for a while.

The night wind blew again, blowing slightly on his face, with a cool comfort.

After an unknown amount of time, King Liang said, "Then let's try."

Zijin said: "If I make a wrong choice, I will not regret my death. It will only drag Sixth Uncle down."

Liang Wang smiled: "I am alone and have nothing to worry about. I have regretted the matter of your father and king for a whole ten years. I often have sleepless nights. I only regret that I did not do it for him in the court. Fighting to the death, but escaping to this point, fortunately, I have you, so that I can do it all over again."

After speaking, Liang Wang bent his arms, put his elbows on the table, and spread his palms.

Seeing this, Zijin approached it, slapped it with his right palm, and then held it tightly.

While Wang Liang nodded, he stretched out his other hand and patted him heavily on the shoulder.

(End of this chapter)