Ning Gu

Entering the garden, the lights are dim.Going around the corridor, passing the floating window, and the Linxiang Pavilion, you can see the flickering candlelight.

Although the new garden is big, it is not as resplendent as the Yongguo mansion, nor is it as elegant as the mansion in Xuancheng, but more like a charming Yue girl, with an irresistible human affection in the elegance, but this human affection can only be This point is beyond the entire garden.

Standing in the depths of the garden, Jiumu waited for the two people who came back from the Chongque. With sharp eyes of envy, he ran up and said hello to him, "Jimu, you are back, and my master is back too." How come he didn't wait for me and daddy today?"

Seeing that the two had returned, he asked Zhao Zuo and Xianzhi how to salute, and then turned slightly to lead them forward, answering Xianzhi's question as he walked: "The master left the venue early. Because I have something important to go back to the garden, so I didn’t wait for you two. Please forgive me, Master Guzang and Young Master.”

When Zhao Zuo heard the words, he nodded in response, and followed the wooden steps, and his subordinates were led by Xian Zhi, his eyes met Xian Zhi's gaze, and he seemed to understand it, and said: "Xian Zhi asked, what about others?"

As soon as these words came out, he stared enviously at his father, but Zhao Zuo's glance suppressed him before he expressed his doubts.

Just as he was leading the way, he didn't know what was going on behind him, so he said to himself: "The master said that when you two return, he will take you and the young master to the main hall of Yunqi."

"Master, do you still have a gift for Xianzhi? Didn't you leave the banquet long ago?" Xianzhi asked Zhao Zuo out of curiosity this time without waiting for Zhao Zuo to speak.

When Emperor Hui was at the banquet just now, he jumped to Zhao Zuo's side when Emperor Hui left, just when he heard his father mutter in a low voice: "Leaving the banquet so early?"

At first he thought it was the emperor's grandfather who had left, but when he followed his father's gaze and saw nothing, he became even more confused.

It wasn't until later that he got out of the heavy gate and saw that the master was not there, his father got into the carriage and told him that his master had left early, and just now he said that Xie Wuling had returned early, so Xianzhi boldly guessed that the person who left at the banquet It was Xie Wuling.

So he said vaguely: "The villain doesn't know, but the little master will know after seeing the master, just ask."

As soon as he said that, he stopped, and Xianzhi raised his eyes and saw that the people in the hall had changed into court clothes, and the people in green shirts were facing away from them, fiddling with something in front of the table.

Xianzhi let go of Zhao Zuo's hand, and ran to Xie Wuling's side, causing Zhao Zuo's eyebrows to frown slightly, feeling unhappy for a while.Probably because he didn't expect that he would fall out of favor in front of his own son so quickly.

Isn't it that Xianzhi just wanted to pull him with a stern face?How could this brazen bastard immediately go to Xie Wuling when he came in front of Xie Wuling?

Naturally, Xianzhi didn't know that he had become a shameless thing in his father's heart, and he was only interested in finding out what his master was going to give him.He stepped into the hall a few times, and hugged Xie Wuling from behind.

Xie Wuling was hiding something in his heart, and was shaken by the sudden hug of the child, and the things in his hands were almost knocked over. He stabilized himself, and then took off the handkerchief on the table, two or three times After wiping off the soup stains on his hands, he turned his hands away, patted the melon seeds on the head and waist, and said, "Are you happy today?"

Before he finished asking, he heard the child's voice: "Master, what are you hiding from Xianzhi?"

Xianzhi poked his head from behind him, then stood on tiptoe again, his gaze was at the same level as the celadon bowl on the table, Xianzhi's hands were loosened, his eyes were surprised.

Xie Wuling stepped aside, caught a glimpse of Zhao Zuo standing outside the door from the corner of his eye, and said with a smile: "Longevity noodles. They must be eaten in Fufeng City."

"Wow!" Xianzhi regained his composure, and couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about, but Zhao Zuo took a step forward and asked, "You did it?"

"Ah."

Xian Zhi sat down and took the chopsticks handed over by Xie Wuling, after smelling the fragrance, he immersed himself in sucking the noodles in the bowl.

Zhao Zuo didn't give Xie Wuling a good look, and said coldly: "The gentleman is far away from the kitchen, you... don't treat him like this."

"Then I won't be a gentleman, I'll just be a villain once." Xie Wuling raised his eyes and said boldly, "It's only once a year."

Zhao Zuo knew that he couldn't say no to Xie Wuling, so he cast his eyes on the person in front of him sucking noodles: "Thank you yet?"

"Thank you, Master!" Xianzhi covered his face, and couldn't hear the four words Xie Wuling clearly.

The smile in Xie Wuling's eyes was even stronger, more charming than Chunlai's peach blossom pavement, and attracted Zhao Zuo's attention.

The last time Zhao Zuo was so hard to take his eyes off was when he saw this man in the opera robe outside the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice.Last time, it seemed to be the person under the apricot tree, and last time, it was the person drinking the cup to the moon in Zhaoxing Temple...

Counting in this way, Zhao Zuo couldn't take his eyes off the person in front of him every time.

"After you've finished eating, remember to get the booklet from Cutan's table. Same rules, come find me after three days." Xie Wuling put the handkerchief back on the table, and after explaining, he asked again, "I'll take care of you today." Sleep well?"

Unexpectedly, at this question, Xianzhi stopped eating noodles, shaking his head like a rattle.After chewing and swallowing what was in his mouth, he hurriedly said: "Master doesn't care about me today?"

"Today, he's in charge of me." Zhao Zuo said sharply. Hearing the sound, Xianzhi didn't even dare to meet his father's eyes. From what he knew in seven years, with such a tone, his father's face It's hard to say, how terrifying it must be.Little did he know that the two adults in the hall were holding back their laughter to scare him.

It's strange to say that since Xie Wuling returned to Fufeng, Xianzhi has been relying on him, sleeping next to Xie Wuling at night, and only after Zhao Zuo returned to Beijing, Xianzhi restrained himself, but Xie Wuling or Zhao Zuo often went to remind him It was time to fall asleep, so I went to bed and rested.

After all, he is not a child anymore, he shouldn't rely on his parents, let alone Xie Wuling is not Xianzhi's father or mother, both Zhao Zuo and Xie Wuling thought it was inappropriate to indulge him.That's how the one that was agreed this morning tonight came about.

After hearing this, Xianzhi immediately had tears in his eyes, and even the longevity noodles were not as delicious as before.

Zhao Zuo was afraid that Xie Wuling would feel sympathy, so he called him and motioned him to go out, then pretended to be cold and said to Xian in a blink of an eye: "It's settled, after eating the longevity noodles, I called Jiumu earlier. Lead you to rest."

Hearing the sound, Xian Zhi bit his lip and dared not make a sound, but only nodded silently, stirring the chopsticks in the bowl, picked out a noodle, and sucked it slowly.

Xie Wuling stepped out of Yunqi before Zhao Zuo, and led Zhao Zuo to the Xinglin hut.

Hong Qiong had long since disappeared, and a forest of bald trees looked particularly frightening under the moonlight.Xie Wuling held the lamp and walked side by side with Zhao Zuo. Walking in the woods, it seemed that the moonlight forest was extremely gentle.

In the silence of the place, a common gossip came: "Did Changle meet Xuancheng today? I see that she doesn't look very... good today."

"Well, listen to her and talk to Xuancheng."

"I..." Xie Wuling paused, hesitated, and said coldly, "The one I sent was still crabapple that day." She glanced sideways at Zhao Zuo, and said with a little melancholy, "It took me a long time to recover. .Iris, will only make this winter colder."

"You," Zhao Zuo's eyebrows were indeed tightened a little as Xie Wuling thought, and Xie Wuling was watching him openly. "How much can it help? I think Mr. Xie Xiao is not a villain, but a woman."

"Cong Shanlang said that I am a woman's benevolence?" Xie Wuling stopped, as if he was questioning the people around him.His gaze never left Zhao Zuo.When he was in Binzhou, he thought, it would be good to take a look at the person in front of him, so that he would feel that the time would not be so difficult.

Zhao Zuo didn't take it seriously, and walked forward, saying: "Isn't it? The tea stand outside the garden, I heard that the woman is from Lu Zuo."

"It's just a good deed." Xie Wuling made a point, chased after him, and then turned the conversation back, not letting Zhao Zuo delve into the matter of Lu Zuodi, "Anyway... I can help Changle and Xuancheng."

"How can I help?" Zhao Zuo stopped in front of the hut, asked for a lantern from Xie Wuling, pushed the door and entered the room, and then lit the candlesticks in the room.

Xie Wuling pretended to smile mysteriously, walked straight to the Duobao Pavilion, took a letter and gave it to Zhao Zuo: "It was sent during the day, and this is what you want to say?"

Zhao Zuo took it over, read the small characters on the letter paper, his eyes lingered on the Fang Zhaoxing seal at the end of the letter, silently nodded and said: "Yes, when I go to court today, I heard from the chief guard of the Shen family."

"The message from the northwest last night, when he was on duty and met the messenger officer, he hurriedly said a few words, mentioning the frequent violations of the northwestern bandits. But the incident of the bandits' violation..."

Xie Wuling raised his hand to receive the letter from Zhao Zuo, turned his hand to ignite the fire on the candlestick, told the fire to lick the secret letter, then took Zhao Zuo's words and said: "But it was a word of mouth. , not the county magistrate of Liangzhou or Guzang, for the sake of it, it goes directly to Tianting. And the Ye family occupies a place in the northwest, no matter the military camp or the county magistrate's mansion. Is this action going to bypass the Ye family, or... "

"There is a disagreement in the Ye family?" Zhao Zuo's brows suddenly tightened, and he said everything that Xie Wuling dared not say. "Maybe it was the news from one of the Ye family?"

"I don't know, you always have to go to the northwest."

"En." Zhao Zuo nodded and sat down, but his expression was not relaxed, his brows were still furrowed, Xie Wuling saw him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Zhao Zuo took a deep breath and said, "Pingzhi, you, the Gu Zang Lord, did you do it on purpose?"

"It's intentional, but it's not intentional as you said today. I explained it before." Xie Wuling looked back at Zhao Zuo and said jokingly, "If I had known about today's northwest affairs, I would have been Qin Tianjian. It is not the last official of the household department."

"That……"

"Cong Shanlang forgot what he promised me at your mansion that day?" Xie Wuling stepped closer to his side and said softly.

"what?"

"Trust me, listen to me, obey me." Xie Wuling raised his hand and raised his eyebrows for the person in front of him, with tenderness in his eyebrows and eyes, combined with the flickering lights, Zhao Zuo didn't see it very clearly, but he didn't want to get away.

Zhao Zuo didn't know what kind of charm the person in front of him gave him, which always made him feel that his heart was not as usual.

"However, according to Shanlang's opinion, it is my opinion. If you think it was my intention, it doesn't matter if I did it on purpose." Xie Wuling pulled away with a flick of his sleeve, making Zhao Zuo subconsciously want to raise his hand to grab the corner of the robe, Xie Wuling He also forgot how long it had been since he saw this wanton expression.

"Pingzhi..." Zhao Zuo raised his eyes, but Xie Wuling's hand rested on his shoulder.The words that came to his lips were detoured a few times because of this, but he still didn't say it in the end.

Xie Wuling looked at his pupils with slight ripples, but turned them away. It is better to bury some affection in the bottom of my heart. If it is put on the table one day, maybe the road between Xuancheng and Changle is between him and the people in front of him. People are leaving.

Xie Wuling put his hand on Zhao Zuo's shoulder, patted it affectionately, and said: "It's late at night, I have to rest, the seal of Zhaoxing is something hidden behind Zhaoxing's back, in the future... I will talk about it with you tomorrow." How about you listen?"

"Wait." Zhao Zuo raised his hand to hold down the hand on his shoulder, then turned his head slightly, and the brow that Xie Wuling had just flattened frowned again.

"What? Cong Shanlang really wants me to take care of you today?" Xie Wuling raised his eyebrows, pushed Zhao Zuo as if in reproach, and took the opportunity to withdraw his hand.

Asking this question made Zhao Zuo's ears blush. Although he is a few years older than Xie Wuling, he has experienced those things, and knows that Xie Wuling spent some years in those red buildings and willow lanes in Yangzhou when he was young, but this is the first time he has heard of Xie Wuling. Confessing such explicit words, I don't know what it feels like.He thought, probably the same taste as Xuancheng when he saw Yuan Baochu grow up and sniffed green plums with bare hands.

The night was just right, and the feelings were hazy, except that Zhao Zuo's hand was empty, it seemed that there was nothing wrong, and Zhao Zuo was still immersed in thinking about what it was like in his heart, but Xie Wuling couldn't wait to go back to cutting Tan.

He opened the door, and the door creaked back Zhao Zuo's thoughts, he turned around and called Xie Wuling, and said: "Pingzhi, thank you."

The moonlight sprinkled on Xie Wuling's crown and hair, and flowed on the smile on Xie Wuling's face when he turned around to look at him. The two looked at each other without saying anything.

Zhao Zuo thanked him. When he went to Changming alone, he promised to thank him.

Zhao Zuo thanked him, and he also accepted the gift of returning to Fufeng to send Xianzhi.

Zhao Zuo also thanked him, took him back to Fufeng, gave him Gu Zangzhu, and sent him to the Northwest...everything, Xie Wuling didn't say anything, Zhao Zuo kept it in his heart.Of course, what is remembered is the inexplicably grown love.

And the two of them, when the moonlight filled the forest, they knew each other.

"Pingzhi is a traveler from Zhao, and he chose Congshanlang, so it should be so." Pingzhi's Congshan was originally his private thought.

After Xie Wuling finished speaking, he wanted to pull away and leave, but the coldness on his knees, in the middle of the night in winter, would poke people tightly.He turned his back, gritted his teeth and took what he thought was a steady step, left the forest, and returned to Fatan courtyard.

Zhao Zuoli looked at the leaving figure in the green shirt in the forest room, and always felt that Xie Wuling's steps were much smaller than usual, and his figure was not as stable as before, and the two sword eyebrows frowned even deeper.

He can't say that he knows much about Xie Wuling, he only knows about these things, these things that Xie Wuling has briefly mentioned, he shouldn't ask.

So in the next few years, he also became the person around Xie Wuling who didn't want to understand, until Xie Wuling wanted to mention it to him.

Just like the current Xie Ling, when pulling him to talk, he will be a serious listener.

"Later, I planned to tell you about the Zhaoxing Seal, but it seems that I was delayed by it." Xie Ling nestled in Zhao Zuo's arms, and the candle was flickering, reflecting the two silhouettes cuddling each other.

"Well. Not only did you not say it, but you also used me as a trust when Xuancheng came to drink with me later. But I remembered this."

Xie Ling took out his little notebook from his bosom, and said, "I'm thinking about it." He turned over the page marked "Zhao Xing Yin", and pointed it to Zhao Zuo, "Look?"

"What is this?" Zhao Zuo took Xie Ling's small letter and browsed through it page by page.

"Here I am," Xie Ling said while raising his finger and pointing at his head, "There are too many things, I'm afraid your son will not remember if I ask you later, so I have to write them down first."

"Then here," Zhao Zuo rubbed his chin against the top of Xie Ling's head, "is there something for me?"

Xie Ling rubbed his hands together, put his arm around Zhao Zuo's neck, put it next to his ear, and said softly, "I'm full of thoughts."

Hearing this, Zhao Zuo's eyes darkened, he raised his hand to embrace Xie Ling, and turned his head to look for his thin lips, but told Xie Ling to hide, causing Zhao Zuo to stop and look at Xie Ling.

Only then did Xie Ling's eyes light up again, as if his calculation had succeeded, he said: "I haven't returned to the garden for the past two days, but you avoided me to deal with your Yingying Yanyan?"

"The harem is empty, where did Yingying Yanyan come from?" Zhao Zuo frowned and refuted him in a good-tempered manner.

"It's not Yingying Yanyan, but state affairs?" Xie Ling's eyes caught up with Zhao Zuo, Zhao Zuo couldn't avoid it, and was stared to death by Xie Ling.It took a long time to nod in response to his question.

Xie Ling took every step carefully and continued to say: "Something is going to happen in the Northwest, isn't it?"

Zhao Zuo pursed his lips and said nothing, but Xie Ling continued to present the things he had been pondering over the past few days in front of Zhao Zuo: "Xianzhi has not returned for two days, but Li Jian came back with Xuancheng. You said Ling Is there anything in the recommendation view that can keep Xianzhi, so that he won't come back and talk to me?"

Zhao Zuo's gaze turned cold, but it wasn't because Xie Ling's few words pierced his hidden thoughts, but because Qi Zhisheng's inappropriate words made him lose his mind, and he also confessed that he received it from Zhaoxing. That little boy, the little boy also reported to Xie Ling that he was only cooking tea and reading books for the past two days.

Zhao Zuo's hand around his waist tightened, and he sighed after a long time, and exhorted: "Pingzhi, Mr. Qi said that you don't have to worry about it anymore. I can talk to you about these things, but As long as you answer my widow's words, don't bother. You should do a good deed." Zhao Zuo's words trembled, and he changed his words, "Accept me, and I will only be your second son in the south of the Yangtze River, and be your Xie Ling, okay?"

"Okay." Xie Ling responded without thinking, but Zhao Zuo was even more startled.

He immediately explained everything: "There may be something going on in the northwest, and I don't know what to say, but Lu Qi is real..." Zhao Zuo looked up at Xie Ling, paused, and said, "It's gone. Envy only accepts it." I wrote a note, the contents of which are unknown to the widow.”

"Disappeared?" Xie Ling passed Zhao Zuo's hand and was a little stunned by the news. He had such an idea in his heart, but it was rejected early.Only the two of them know the deep meaning of disappearance, but he doesn't want to...

Humans don't always want to put their closest relatives into the worst situation.

Xie Ling's breath was stagnant in his chest, his eyes went black for a while, he tried to open his eyes, but in vain, he heard someone calling him urgently: "Pingzhi, Pingzhi!"

The author has something to say: some sugar in the transition section, some sugar in the transition section

I almost forgot what I wrote as I wrote it, so I changed it slightly