Ning Gu

The corridor is long and the candlesticks are weak, unable to illuminate the surroundings.

Xie Ling leaned on Lu Qi to support him, and walked slowly, but the pace became slower and slower. For the first time, Lu Qi saw that the faces of the people beside him were normal, and he thought he was timid because he was close to his hometown. After all, the one in the dark room was Xie Ling's In the past, Xie Wuling's "fate".

But what Lu Qi didn't see was Xie Ling's fist under his sleeve, and his hands behind his back. He wasn't afraid of looking back on the slump of his death, but because of the sharp pain in his knees, which stopped him in his footsteps.He diverted his attention aloud and said, "I think this is a secret passage."

"Shanren, where does this... lead?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was the place where the pig was hidden?"

"Is there really someone here?"

Xie Ling's steps suddenly stopped, and Lu Qi also stopped, and then he heard Xie Ling say calmly, "I don't remember, maybe."

"Can the mountain man still go?"

"Let's go."

The flames of the candlesticks flickered in the depths of the secret passage.

"Mountain man."

"Ok?"

"Shanren's knees usually hurt too?"

"It will be fine when spring comes, I knelt down for a long time yesterday,"

"My father also had a leg problem, and it hurts every winter."

"Ah."

"Speaking of which, I have never seen my father kneel down."

"He's the prime minister, let others kneel down to him." Xie Ling replied naturally, but Lu Qi stopped in shock, his eyes sparkling.

Xie Ling raised his hand and gave him a slight push, motioning him to move on: "I don't remember. Listen to what they said, Xie... Ning Yuan is the prime minister."

"Oh," Lu Qi replied, with unstoppable disappointment in his eyes, "He doesn't even kneel to the Holy Majesty. But Uncle Congshan has never punished him. The punishment seems to be only once, and the father was not punished by the Holy Majesty. Uncle Congshan was confined to a small restaurant in Yunqi Garden, and Uncle Congshan and my father stayed in the small restaurant for a day, and he still didn’t allow me and Xianzhi to come and visit, saying that he wanted to teach the rules.”

Lu Qi explained the old things sternly, but Xie Ling's ears turned red inexplicably. Fortunately, the secret passage was dark, so it was not discovered.

"Ah! It's here!"

Xie Ling was still in embarrassment, but when he heard the suddenly excited words of the person in front of him, he raised his head in response. It was a stone gate, with fine lines carved on the left and right, and it looked like a lotus bloomed in it under the flowing clouds all over the sky. , the flowers and leaves overlap, exquisite and unusual.

The lamps and candles shone on the top of the stone gate, and there were dots of light shining, which seemed to be inlaid with small gemstones. On both sides of the stone gate, there was a path extending to a deeper place.Looking at it this way, it looks more like the underground palace where Zhaoxing hid the relics.

And this dark room is mostly a remote side room of the underground palace borrowed by Master Miaofa and his senior brother.Although it is against the way, but according to the temperament of a real person, it is not surprising to act so carelessly.

Lu Qi was about to bend down on the stone gate to admire the lotus pattern of flowing clouds. Xie Ling patted Lu Qi twice, took the candlestick from his hand, walked straight to the right side of the stone gate, and counted the seventh cloud from top to bottom. And the seventh lotus, just as he expected, there is a bluestone brick between the two lines, he raised his hand and pressed it, and then heard the sound of the mechanism behind the stone door turning.

Lu Qi was startled by the sudden call of the machine, he took two steps back subconsciously, and seeing the stone door open in front of his eyes, he turned his head to look at Xie Ling.

Xie Ling didn't want to explain, so he held the lamp and walked into the room.

Lu Qi followed Xie Ling up, but when he looked at the three rows of bookshelves after entering the door, he was stunned.

"this is not?"

"What is it?" Xie Ling looked back after hearing the sound.

"Not from the mansion?" Lu Qi looked at Xie Ling, and before he finished speaking, he was attracted by the painting hanging behind him.

Xie Ling saw that his gaze was cast behind him, so he also looked back.

Not far from the bookshelf behind him, there is a piano case. There are five or six paintings hanging around the piano case.What Lu Qi was looking at was the one hanging behind the piano case.

The painting depicts a young woman, wearing a green gauze crown and holding a dust whisk, just like a Taoist nun.Green frown and detailed description, dignified and natural, a pair of water-cut eyes, a little tear mole under the right eye, adding a bit of cuteness.

Xie Ling passed a glance, then glanced away, he didn't remember this person, he only knew that the person depicted in the painting was not Miaofa Daoist.Miaofa's eyebrows are charming, and she likes the color of sandalwood, and she purses her lips, seeking a "flashy" approval, which is worthy of the name.

The person Xie Ling didn’t remember, but Lu Qi remembered clearly, was Xianzhi’s aunt, Princess Changle Zhao Yuanwrap, and she had a past with Xianzhi’s uncle, Xuancheng Lord Zhao Shi, but it was all old times. gossip.Later, she went out of the palace to stand and watch in the name of praying for blessings, and she never married in her life; as for the Xuancheng lord, it is said that he raised seven or eight maids in the mansion, and lived a life of drunken dreams every day.

Lu Qi was attracted by the painting, he took a few steps unconsciously, walked out of the bookshelf, and saw the painting hanging high in the hall, which he had never seen before in Xie's mansion.But every scene is very familiar scene, it should be a place he has seen, but in fact, he can't remember it.But if Zhao Zuo was there, he would definitely be able to explain why each picture is so.Because that... the painting is about Xie Wuling and what he experienced.It starts from Fangqin and ends with the apricot forest in Yunqi Garden.

But Zhao Zuo had never been in this dark room, even after Xie Wuling drank the poison, he still held back his curiosity about it.Xie Wuling once used his life to force him to trust him, but later he believed in Xie Wuling. He never set foot in Xie Wuling's territory, but he still sent Xie Wuling's life to the gate of hell.

"What's the meaning of this painting?" Lu Qi turned his eyes to Xie Ling, raised his hand and waved, pointing to the surrounding paintings.

Xie Ling looked at the paintings around him as he said, but his eyes quickly retracted. When his eyes touched the red stamps signed by each painting, he felt his heart tense uncontrollably, as if something was pressing on his heart, especially when In the penultimate painting, Xie Ling's heart seemed to be grasped. The palm was slowly closing, but suddenly it was tightly packed, so tight that he couldn't breathe until he looked away and returned to the piano case in front of him. Looking at this square of Tongmuqin, I was able to breathe.

Xie Ling lowered his head to look at the Fangqin. The body of the piano was engraved with two or three plum branches. It still looked like it was given to him by Master Miaofa in the old days, only...

He raised his hand to caress the two strings hanging in the body of the piano, and they looked the same as the other strings. Just looking closely, he could see that these two strings seemed to be worn out, not the original two. .Xie Ling raised his hand to caress the two strings, and there was always an image in his mind that wanted to pop out. He shook his head, subconsciously took the piano into his arms, but still did not get better.

On the other hand, Lu Qi, who had just noticed Xie Ling's strangeness and also fell in love with the painting, was still obsessed with the painting.

In that painting, there was a peach blossom tree with branches extending out, and a ring was hanging on it, which was somewhat similar to the ring on Lu Qi's waist.Lu Qi took off the ring and compared it to the painting. Suddenly, Xie Ling grabbed his wrist.The ring was accidentally dropped on the ground by him, and it was broken into pieces.Shocked, Lu Qi gasped, broke away from Xie Ling's hand, and knelt down to pick up the broken jade.

Xie Ling's eyes were full of sternness, he hugged Qin in his arms, and said coldly to him: "Go." But after the words came out, his expression softened immediately, looking at Lu Qi Shiyu's back, he seemed to have lost his mind suddenly. With force, he fell to the ground.For a moment, he was panicked and at a loss.

He had never been so stern to this child, and let him accidentally break the ring. He knew how important this ring was to the child.The broken one is not his, not the child's.Maybe it's Xie Wuling's last.After all, this is a fact - after Lu Qi's birthday party, there will be no more Xie Wuling in this world.

But he wanted to raise his hand to pat the child, but his hand in the air hesitated, he was not Xie Wuling.What he did just now was to get out of here quickly.This place is not his past, but a prison, where the former Xie Wuling was imprisoned, and now it seems that he still wants to imprison him.He was afraid, he wanted to escape, to leave this situation.

Now he can only watch the child struggle with his last thought.

He sat upright and looked at Lu Qi with reddish eyes, motionless. After watching for a long time, he sighed softly.Then put the piano in front of him, fiddled with it once or twice, and saw that the sound was correct, so he flicked it up.