long friend

When I opened my eyes, the surrounding light was dim, as if artificially created.

Su Yan stared in front of his eyes for a long time before realizing that he was lying down. The futon room was filled with the long-lost faint scent of incense, and the bed curtain was lowered, gently separating him a square inch of privacy.

The last scene I remember was him standing in front of Li Rong's tomb, but Su Yan didn't know about it later.He sat up and pressed his right shoulder, moved his arm, and his whole body hurt - the injury was not enough, and the aftereffects of fatigue were enough to drink a pot.Su Yan shook his head, trying to clear up all these negative emotions.

He lifted the bed curtain, and when he was about to get up, he raised his eyes a little, and saw a person sitting in front of the round table, staring at him intently.Su Yan narrowed his eyes, couldn't help but relax after seeing the person clearly, and said with a sigh, "Ah Chen?"

Xiao Qichen nodded slightly, and explained: "You suddenly fainted in front of Rongniang's tomb. Before the funeral was over, Tianhui and I sent you back - you and I are not relatives of Rongniang - and then you slept until now... yes Are you too tired?"

Su Yan covered his temples and groaned in pain, thinking in his heart that there was a big misunderstanding, and sure enough, Xiao Qichen continued in an inexplicable tone: "I thought...you didn't have deep feelings for Rongniang."

Su Yan couldn't answer, so he shook his head.

The two of them have fallen into a strange embarrassment since Su Yan came back, as if something that was between the two of them no longer exists, but the natural moat it reserved still lies between them, preventing them from having a deep heart-to-heart conversation in the same way.

Su Yan saw that he was still wearing the gown, so he simply sat down beside Xiao Qichen, poured a cup of tea and drank it silently.

There were only the two of them in the whole room, and the voices outside were very far away.

The autumn sun gradually brightened in the afternoon, and at this time through the window grille, the delicate outline of the wooden window was illuminated on Xiao Qichen's body. Su Yan saw his side face with lowered eyelashes, thoughtful.

It was as if he had been away for a year and a half and was finally able to seriously watch his changes.Xiao Qichen slowly and unquestionably got rid of the image in Su Yan's impression of having baby fat on his cheeks, and now he is well-defined, with a haggard and lazy look that doesn't match that of a 19-year-old, with two black spots under his eyes - he hasn't had a good rest.

Su Yan looked at him without saying a word, and felt sad for a moment in the soothing silence of the room that both he and Xiao Qichen were growing up, and they could never go back to the past.

This kind of emotion made Su Yan's heart tighten tightly. He knew that he didn't like this feeling. The indescribable entanglement of those years suddenly revived during the silence——

"Qichen and I don't talk about everything like our good friends, and the rest are even more powerless."

Xiao Qichen wanted to walk towards the chair in the middle of the Tai Chi Hall in the future, Jiangshan was what he wanted.Even though Su Yan promised everything, would it be rare for Xiao Qichen to stand at the pinnacle of power when the time comes?

When killing the enemy Weiguo at Yanmenguan, he often went through life and death. Su Yan never felt that it was dangerous, on the contrary, he was extremely happy.His depression of more than ten years can only be released on that battlefield. As soon as he returned to Jinling, he was locked in an exquisite cage like an eagle with its wings broken, and was forced to restrain all his sharpness.

And the immature ambition he had revealed to Xiao Qichen like a whisper, seemed to run aground because of it.Then they will tacitly choose to stay away from each other, and finally retreat to a position indistinguishable from others.

This gradual distance is different from the abrupt separation of yin and yang. It flows down like a stream, but never looks back.

More cruel than life and death.

His expression changed a lot. Although Xiao Qichen didn't look directly at him, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye and couldn't help asking: "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking..." Su Yan chose his words carefully, "You seldom write to me, and you don't like to talk about yourself. When you came to Yanmen Pass last year, you didn't tell me what happened to Jinling—is it true? Trust me?"

Xiao Qichen didn't expect him to be so serious when he opened his mouth, not to mention his tone was extremely serious, he immediately retorted in a hurry: "How could that be!"

Su Yan said: "Then why did you always try to hide from me after I married Rong Niang?"

For a moment everything was silent, and then a bird outside the window uttered a cheerful cry.

Su Yan stared at Xiao Qichen without dodging his eyes in the slightest.Xiao Qichen's expression turned from ignorance to surprise, hesitation, and helplessness, and finally stopped at his usual gentle smile.

Xiao Qichen said: "I didn't hide, it's because you are too busy. Someone at home is reading, so it's not easy to stick with you all the time—Ayan, it's normal for us to be like this."

He intentionally bit the word "normal" hard so that he could hear clearly and not be swayed by Su Yan's vague words.Xiao Qichen had cultivated a thick-skinned heart with a turbulent heart and a calm surface in the court hall. His heart hurt because of the words he said, but he would never let Su Yan see it.

"Normal?" Su Yan repeated, and then laughed mockingly, with the corners of his mouth turned up, but there was a small gap between his brows, which made his expression extremely contradictory.

Xiao Qichen nodded without changing his expression.

Su Yan felt annoyed for no reason.

He endured being punched by Li Xu in public, and he didn't get angry when he was spinning around like a spinning top to apologize. Even a long time ago, Turkic tried his best to provoke him deliberately, Su Yan forced himself not to deal with them.

At that moment, his calm formulas no longer worked, and Su Yan stood up abruptly.

"Is it 'normal' to be like strangers from now on? After so many years, Xiao Qichen...what do you think of me? Okay, do you mean 'normal'? Then you don't have to tell me anything from now on, and mine Don't bother His Highness to care about anything!"

He seldom called Xiao Qichen "Your Highness", and every time he was either deliberately teasing or pretending to be angry, only this time he was completely annoyed, every time he said "normal", he gritted his teeth harder, his hands clenched the edge of the table, his knuckles turned white.

Xiao Qichen suddenly had a sore nose, and his eyes were filled with water, and he blurted out: "What are you shouting about?"

He was so wronged, as if he was not the one who said those cruel words to Su Yan.The rest of Su Yan's venting was blocked in his throat after seeing Xiao Qichen's crying expression. He sat down again, tapped his fingers on the table impatiently, and finally sighed, forcing himself to calm down.

What the hell are they doing?

Su Yan looked at him, and said softly: "Then what are you going to do? Isn't it the most appropriate for you to be the king and my minister? You don't want to. If you treat me as a friend, why do you still avoid me?"

Xiao Qichen rubbed his eyes, staring at the wetness of his hands, without saying a word.

Su Yan almost used all the patience he had in the first 20 years of his life: "Achen, I... I really don't know what you're thinking for more than a year. I'm not that smart. Tell me if you want—is someone bullying you in Jinling? Is it from the court?”

He took it for granted that Xiao Qichen must have been wronged, and after persuading him for a while, Xiao Qichen finally opened his mouth awkwardly and asked a question completely irrelevant to Su Yan's concern: "You... Before Rong Niang died..."

Seeing that he was willing to speak, Su Yan immediately became happier, and quickly cooperated: "What's the matter?"

"What painting did you look at in the middle of the night?" Xiao Qichen asked, blinking.

Su Yan almost thought that Xiao Qichen had deliberately pretended to be wronged just now to lower his vigilance. If the enemy army was half as capable as him, the battle would have been unnecessary.He turned around turbulently in his heart, and silently chewed what Xiao Qichen said, and suddenly asked in doubt: "Who told you that I read paintings in the middle of the night?"

Xiao Qichen said innocently: "Rong Niang, she said you keep waking her up."

Su Yan: "Only two or three times!"

Xiao Qichen tilted his head: "Oh?"

Even if he jumped into the Yellow River, he couldn't wash himself away. Su Yan felt that he had made a slip of the tongue, and hurriedly covered his mouth.However, it was too late, Xiao Qichen pursed his lips and looked at him smiling, the corner of his eyes couldn't tell whether it was his original mole of tears, or the water fell again.

Su Yan stood up as if giving up: "Well, I really can't sleep at night. I'm not used to sleeping with other people. I only slept with her three or four times. Every time I woke up right after I fell asleep. Personally, I couldn't sleep comfortably at all. I was afraid of waking her up by tossing and turning, so I got up by myself..."

As he spoke, he walked to the desk, took out a scroll from under a pile of paper that looked like he used to practice handwriting, and handed it to Xiao Qichen: "Look at this."

Xiao Qichen didn't expect him to show it to him so generously, and he was planning to trick him into taking a look at it, but now he doesn't need it all, so he obediently took it.Su Yan's expression was very calm, which made Xiao Qichen feel guilty instead.

He made a "huh" and slowly unfolded the scroll.

The picture slowly emerges inch by inch along with his movements—the white paper turned yellow and the ink became old, but the ink plum is still so elegant, as if it was drawn casually.

After seeing the painting clearly, Xiao Qichen's breathing almost stopped.He himself has forgotten what he thought when he gave it to Su Yan, but this painting quietly reminded him that in the past ten years, the memories belonging to the two are still the majority, and they kept cutting and juggling. Complicated friendships are never eroded by time.

Back then, both Xiao Qichen and Su Yan could only be regarded as half-grown children, with clear minds and ignorant emotions.The first time Su Yan left Jinling to guard Xuzhou, he passed by by chance, and was suddenly wrapped in "missing".

Xiao Qichen gently spread the ink plum picture on the table, and the sunlight pulled down the golden strip just right, and he murmured: "...I didn't think about it so much back then, what was written here...what?"

He left a lot of blank space on the paper, and only wrote his own private seal. The vermilion seal is a seal character "晓", which was sent by the Taifu. The font is very square and dignified, very unlike his style.Even after such a long time, that word is still bright and colorful, but there are two rows of inscriptions neatly beside it.

Xiao Qichen stared at those eight characters for a long while, then burst out laughing: "Ayan, you are so stupid."

Su Yan was gentle at the time when he wrote it, but he felt a little embarrassed afterwards, but it's not good to change it, so he could only let them line up and stay next to Mo Mei. The words "May the year and thank you, and the long-term friends" are very meaningful, indescribably lingering, and when listed separately, there is an eternal attachment.

At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching outside the window, and everything begins to wither, and the depression extends from the paper all the way to the treetops with fallen leaves outside the window.

After reading this sentence silently several times, the complexity in Xiao Qichen's eyes almost overflowed.He twisted the tip of his nose, put away his sorrow and joy, and said to the overwhelmed Su Yan: "At that time, you thought..."

He nodded: "It was before, and it is now."

Xiao Qichen remained silent, and smiled at him after a long while: "According to the time, they will be back soon, let's go out first. By the way, after a while, brother Zhongguang said that he would welcome you, and I will call you again at that time."

Su Yan agreed and walked out with him.Xiao Qichen caught a glimpse of the purse hanging around his waist, it still looked familiar, and the corners were a little worn out from using it for too long.

"Your purse is getting old," he reminded, "Why don't I give you a new one another day?"

Su Yan nodded and said yes.

The feud between them was revealed lightly, Su Yan thought of it later, it seemed to be like this every time.They each made unreasonable troubles, and then suddenly opened their minds, pretending that they had just been lowered, silently retracted those heart-piercing nonsense, and returned to the right track.

Li Rong's funeral has been done, and according to etiquette, it is not appropriate for Su Yan to remarry within three years, and Su Heng, as her only son, must also be filial.But Su Heng was still young and could not speak, so everyone tacitly let him go.

"However, there is something very funny. Rong Niang just passed away before the full moon, and someone has already come to my house to be a matchmaker."

In the Yanyu Building, there was no Shengge ditty, Su Yan raised his head and drank the wine, and after saying this absurd thing, he laughed sarcastically: "These grown-ups always say that they are polite and honest, so what did they do?"

Xie Hui was very interested: "Which adult is so confused that he wants to give you his daughter if he catches up?"

Xiao Qichen was concentrating on peeling crabs, but he listened to every detail. Hearing the words, he immediately said: "I know, it's Mr. Fu Xu, the young prince. He wants his son crazy. I heard that he married many concubines. Can't come out. There are so many daughters, and I can't afford to support them if I don't get married again. My father has even ridiculed this matter."

Su Yan didn't express his opinion, and he robbed him of all the words, so he could only sigh depressingly.

Xie Hui smashed his teeth, probably remembered who Master Xu really was, and said with embarrassment: "With his crooked appearance, he still wants to marry our Ayan who is in Yushu Linfeng - it's really a dream to marry Xi Shi. Think beautifully."

Xie Hui's chatter was next to his ear, and Xiao Qichen was trying to get the crab for a long time but couldn't eat it. Su Yan couldn't see it, and picked another piece of crab paste for him, and then Shi Shiran said: "Thanks to my brother-in-law Now, I'm afraid that Jinling City will spread the word that Su Yan is an unlucky and heartless person, whoever marries will stay alone, how can anyone dare to marry?"

He didn't shy away from mentioning this matter. Hearing this, Xie Hui breathed a sigh of relief, and boldly made a joke of Su Yan, raised his glass and said, "Come, come, congratulations on joining our widowed and lonely family—Your Highness, the young man lost his mother. When a young man loses his wife, and when I am old, I have a son, so I have not tasted all the joys and sorrows in my life, and I have to experience all the ups and downs of extreme sorrow and pain."

Su Yan sneered, "Your wife started thinking about her son before she knew where she was."

Xiao Qichen chimed in: "Can we be the same as you? You think highly of yourself, Brother Zhong Guang."

Xie Hui: "..."

As an insider, seeing that Xiao Qichen's elbow was too obvious, he didn't dare to attack, so he changed the subject with a grin: "Ayan, speaking of this, you should be crowned this year, right?"

All men in Nanliang hold their crowning ceremony at the age of 20. This is a major event comparable to getting married. It indicates that they are adults and can make decisions on their own in the future. They can no longer use "young and ignorant" as an excuse to shirk.It's been a while since Su Yan's birthday, but he hasn't heard about it for a long time. No wonder Xie Hui asked a few more questions on purpose.

Su Yan said: "The mourning period...it's not very good after all. My family doesn't pay much attention to these things. Many of the elders have already fought in the battlefield when they were crowned. How can there be time to deal with the red tape? .”

"Example?" Xie Hui's eyes lit up, "What's your name?"

He was very quiet when he mentioned this, dipping his chopsticks in the wine and writing strokes on the wooden table.

vertical, horizontal fold, horizontal...

Su Yan wrote seriously, Xiao Qichen couldn't help leaning closer to him, with his head almost resting on his arm, and read along the handwriting: "Ming... Yu? Is there a special meaning?"

Su Yan smiled and said, "No, Pei Yuming Luan, the world is peaceful and prosperous."

A table of good wine and good food complements the exquisite and fancy decoration in the Yanyu Building, and the melodious tune of the singing girl faintly wafts from downstairs, it is a bit ironic to match these eight words.

Xie Hui gave a "tsk" and said, "Very good."

The author has something to say: In fact, it’s pure and nice, and then I think Qichen and Mingyu are a good match (covering face