A glance at the spring breeze

A few days later, Li Quanfeng finally arrived at the Linzhou government with his army.

The Linzhou government is not their destination, but they need to supply food and grass here, and when they leave the government's boundary, they will leave the customs.

Prefect Sun Zhiquan personally came out to welcome the army that conquered the northern kingdom. After Li Quanfeng had a polite conversation with Prefect Sun, he was invited into the mansion, and Ruan Lan followed behind.

The furnishings in the mansion are deserted and not luxurious, and there is no sign of antique jewelry collection in the opened room.As for Sun Zhifu himself, he also looked personable, honest and kind, and looked like a thin middle-aged man, not comparable to the big bellies of those dignitaries in the capital.

The surrounding scenery is naturally narrower and simpler than the garden landscape in the mansion in the capital, but it has what the capital has.There is a small but exquisite lake in the courtyard, and there are pavilions, rockery, and stone bridges around it, which complement the bookish atmosphere of the magistrate Sun.

It is said that Sun Zhifu loves the people like a son and is not arrogant, and it seems that it is probably true.

Li Quanfeng, Ruan Lan and some other generals were led by Sun Zhifu to an open house beside the lake, where a stove was burning.

Sun Zhifu said: "Sun guessed that the soldiers must have been exposed to a lot of rain when they marched all the way, so they specially lit the stove and warmed the wine to clean up the dust and wind for the soldiers." He waved his arms and said: "Please Everyone, take your seats!"

Li Quanfeng made a bow to Sun Zhifu: "Master Sun has a heart."

The officers and soldiers below all echoed, praising Sun Zhifu as a clean and honest official, staying in the barren land of Linzhou for the sake of the people and the country, and made a lot of contributions.

After everyone was seated, the dishes were quickly brought up by the servants.

Is this dish... more delicate than ordinary simple tea and light rice, but it is not as good as delicacies from mountains and seas, big fish and meat.Sun Zhifu was a little embarrassed: "All officers and men, there is not much food in Linzhou. This is already the best cook here. If the hospitality is not good, please Haihan, Haihan."

"Prefect Sun, don't feel bad for us. We usually march and eat rotten vegetables and wild stalks. This time we finally had a good meal. We also want to thank you for your hospitality!"

"Yes, yes. Prefect Sun, I have really troubled you this time."

Li Quanfeng poured a bowl of wine first, and said, "Come on, I'll do it first as a respect!"

"Okay! The general is refreshing."

……

After drinking and eating, Li Quanfeng and the others prepared to leave.

Li Quanfeng said to Ruan Lan: "I have already agreed with Mr. Sun to let you stay here tonight to check the local household registration files."

Ruan Lan nodded: "Before noon tomorrow, I will return to the camp on time after the investigation is completed."

"I sent two people here to protect you. If you find any problems, just send one of them to find me in the camp."

After bidding farewell to the soldiers, Zhifu Sun and Ruan Lan exchanged a few words, and then went to rest.Ruan Lan was taken to a guest room by the servants of the Sun House. The servants helped Ruan Lan make the bed, served tea, and then said to Ruan Lan: "Master Ruan Canjun, I'm going to prepare the copybooks that you need. Move the file over here."

"Well, thank you."

That servant blushed when Ruan Lan said that, he scratched his head: "My lord, what are you doing thanking the little one, this is what the little one should do."

He swiftly brought over the files of the Three Great Mountains, and then heard Ruan Lan say, "Help me get a few more red candles."

After all, it would be unkind to have to look through the whole night, burn out the candle lamps, and ask him to get up in the middle of the night to look for candles.

The servant helped Ruan Lan move the files and find the candles, then stood by the door frame and asked, "My lord, do you have any other orders?"

"Go down, if you have nothing else to do, don't come to me."

In this season, Linzhou is already cold, and after nightfall, the wind outside is even colder.Even if a stove is lit in the room to dispel the cold, you can still feel the howling cold wind passing through the gaps in the doors and windows, turning a few turns unrelentingly, and whizzing into the skirt and cuffs.

Ruan Lan sat at the table and flipped through the household registration files. After a while, her hands and feet became cold.

I wanted to drink some hot tea to warm my body, but I didn't expect that the water in the teapot was already cold.

So, Ruan Lan thought about getting up and moving for a while, and when her limbs warmed up, she moved the file to the bedside to read.Just when he stood up with a volume of household registration, he suddenly heard a soft "pong" by the closed window.

It seemed that something hit the wooden window.

Ruan Lan followed the prestige.

Then there was another "thump".It was louder than before.

The window was closed, and the outside scene could not be seen clearly.

At this time, there was no one outside, and it was absolutely impossible for wild beasts to go out in such a cold night, and most of the birds had already migrated to the south... What made this noise?

Ruan Lan walked slowly towards the window step by step.

The flames that had been standing inside the house began to swing from side to side, and the flames began to toss and turn.

"Pang...pound..."

The noise continued.

Ruan Lan put down the file she was holding, and stretched out her hand to push the window open.

At the moment when the window was opened, Ruan Lan felt a piercing cool wind rushing in, quickly rattling the files.

The wind outside is really fierce and cold - he secretly sighed in his heart.

Ruan Lan raised her eyes and looked out.It was empty outside the window, so dark that even a little bit of moonlight and starlight could not be seen.

It seems that it was the sound of the wind blowing just now.

He hastily closed the wooden window.At this time, his hands were already red from the bitter wind outside.

But who knows, at this moment - the candles in the house went out.

Um?Could it be that this one has burned out.

Ruan Lan was about to take out the torch from her arms to check the situation, when a strange yet familiar voice suddenly sounded in her ear.

——"Last time it was the eyes...this time, what would you like to order?"

These words entered his ears like swift snakes.

Ruan Lan opened her eyes wide in the darkness.

Unbelievable...it turned out to be him.

——It was the person who played a trick in his eyes many years ago.

Then, he felt numb and lost consciousness.

When she woke up again, Ruan Lan found that she was no longer in the bedroom in Linzhou Mansion.

Looking around, there are only some blue and yellow flames in the distance.

"Knack, knock, knock..."

In the nearby place, at a distance of about three feet, something seemed to move.In such a quiet environment, the sound was particularly abrupt, like the sound of some heavy object hitting a bone, which instantly made Ruan Lan's hair stand on end.

Just when Ruan Lan wanted to use the faint light in the distance to see what was three feet away, a voice suddenly sounded in her right ear: "I... want you to see something."

It is him again!

It was the person who put a bewitch on his eyes many years ago!

This voice is very similar to Taoist Xuanmo, but the tone is completely different from that of Taoist Xuanmo.Ruan Lan was almost mistaken.

He turned his head to the right and asked, "Who are you? Why do you keep playing tricks on me?"

But the light was so weak that he couldn't see anything.

"Hehe... This is so much fun. In the words of your Shenzhou, I will greatly increase my cultivation base."

Ruan Lan was puzzled: "What cultivation?"

"Hasn't Xuan Mo told you? I'm Xichen."

Ruan Lan's eyes flashed suddenly in the darkness: "So you are Rhinoceros."

The man chuckled: "Child, it seems that you know me."

Ruan Lan was silent.

"I want to give you a big gift." The man smiled lowly, and his voice disappeared, "Yin Cheng, come here."

Ruan Lan took a step back in shock.

Xichen was actually calling the prince's name!

"Knock knock knock..."

Thirty feet away, the sound sounded again.

"Knock Knock Knock--"

The sound slowly approached.

getting closer to him...

A gleam of light suddenly flashed in front of Ruan Lan's eyes, and then the light disappeared again.

However, it is enough.

Through just that ray of light, Ruan Lan was able to see clearly that there was a trembling white bone standing in front of his eyes.

"Knock Knock Knock--"

Ruan Lan slumped on the ground.

"Prince...Prince...you really..."

You were actually turned into a bone by the rhinoceros.

Ruan Lan heard her heart beating faster and faster, and her breathing became more and more unsteady.

Something slid up his temple.

—appears to be a knuckle of a skeleton.

The knuckles were a little rough, slowly moving along his cheeks to the corner of his mouth.

"Alan——" the skeleton made Yin Cheng's voice, but it was much hoarse than when he was alive. It began to slowly tell the past with that incomparably vicissitudes of voice.

"13 years ago, I met Lord Xichen for the first time. Not long after the elder brother died of illness, I was made the crown prince by my father. It was the time when I was most energetic. But at that time, Lord Xichen said to me, I Without the appearance of an emperor, the crown prince is destined to sit for a short time."

Ruan Lan sat on the ground, supporting the ground with one hand, and Yin Cheng's bone grabbed the other hand.

Yin Cheng continued: "Of course I didn't believe it at first. After all, after the death of the eldest brother, I am the eldest son. I should be the heir. After a hundred years of my father, I will definitely become the son of heaven! What's more, At that time, I already had a marriage contract with the prime minister's most beloved youngest daughter, and more than [-]% of the ministers in the six departments supported me; and people from our faction have already spread rumors in the capital, portraying Ruan Lan as a Wenqu star descending to earth. Everyone in the capital knows that Ruan Shangshu has a young son with both ability and integrity. In this way, I am powerful in the court, and my father sees that I will have good ministers to assist me in the future, so why not pass it on to me?"

"But……"

"Yeah, you know the 'but' too. "Yin Cheng chuckled lightly, "But——Royal Father began to suspect me, belittle me, disdain me, gradually alienate me, and instead dote on that Yin Zhan.When hunting, Yin Jian and I killed the same number of prey, and my father praised Yin Jian, but he ignored me; when we were discussing swordsmanship, it was obvious that I was better than Yin Jian, and my father praised him. It's him, so what's so good about Yin Jian? !What's so good about it? !Even you—even you..."

Hearing Yin Cheng's increasingly uncontrollable voice, Ruan Lan hurriedly said: "Prince, listen to me—"

Yin Cheng didn't give him a chance to explain at all: "Listen to you? Then tell me—hehe, I followed you secretly during the prime minister's birthday, what did I see?"

Ruan Lan didn't expect Yin Cheng to remember.On the fiftieth birthday of the former prime minister, Ruan Lan went to celebrate with Yin Cheng, halfway through the banquet, he left to relieve himself, but on the way back, he was caught by Yin Jian who had been waiting for a long time.

That time, Yin Cheng saw Ruan Lan being pushed into a corner by Yin Zhen with his own eyes, and kissed him hard.

Ruan Lan shook her head, with mist in her eyes: "I - he was drunk that time, no, I explained to you later -"

Yin Cheng ignored his rhetoric, and his phalanges began to exert force. It held Ruan Lan's hand tightly, and then continued: "Then...then one day, I met Lord Xichen again. He told me that my body His imperial aura is getting less and less, and it seems that there is not much left, unless, unless I help him kill all the merchants with the surname Zaozhang on Qiumang Mountain in southern Anhui Province, Master Xichen can help me and climb the mountain. Throne."

Ruan Lan knew it in her heart: "So, Your Highness, you agree to Xichen's request and make a contract with him."

"Yeah, why didn't I agree to such a good deal? It was just taking the lives of that mountain of untouchables. How can it be compared with the noble throne?! I am the prince, and the future is the emperor! Why do they prevent me from ascending to the throne?" The ninth-fifth place! Why!"

"But you are not only going to kill, you will become the servant of this evil thing from now on!"

Taoist Master Xuanmo once said that those who make a contract with Rhinoceros will obey Rhinoceros forever and become its servants who wreak havoc on the world.

"Shut up! You are not allowed to call Lord Xichen an evil thing!" The skeleton's voice became thinner, "You can't achieve great things while alive, and you will go to hell after death! Ruan Lan, you still don't understand me !"

Ruan Lan shook her head: "I thought I was the one who understood His Highness best, but now, I realize that I don't understand you for a long time..."

"Oh, you don't understand me..." Yin Cheng let go of Ruan Lan's hand, walked aside "knock kowtow", and said leisurely: "But Feng Bi understands me, he knows what's on my mind, and he helped me kill me." But Master Xichen said that I have not killed all the members of the Zhang family, so he cannot help me ascend to the throne for the time being. Not only that, but what I never expected was that Feng Bizhi was framed by Yin Jian And was executed by the emperor's order. Ruan Lan! Do you know how much my heart hurts! The only person who understands me and knows my heart is killed by Yin Jian!"

"No, Your Majesty once told me that Feng Bizhi was not killed by him."

This "Your Majesty" pierced the pain in Yin Cheng's heart even more. He waved his bone-only hand and pulled it towards Ruan Lan's face: "What kind of Majesty is he! I should be the Majesty you speak of!"

"Uh!——" Ruan Lan was swung to the ground, and there was a burst of burning pain on her face.

At this time, Yin Cheng was moody, and he suddenly recovered his calm tone, and continued: "After some searching, I found out that a female member of Zhang's family married a dignitary of the Liuchi Kingdom, so I tried to use the power of the crown prince in my hand. I forced Liuchi Kingdom to drive them out of Liuchi, but before I could kill them all, I didn't expect that I was informed that I enshrined an evil thing every day in order to confuse my father. , I was imprisoned for the crime of witchcraft. Is it possible to worship Mr. Xichen, can it be regarded as an offering of evil things?"

Ruan Lan originally thought that Yin Cheng's crime of witchcraft was framed by others, but he never expected that Yin Cheng himself did it.

This skeleton was no longer the prince he knew.

Yin Cheng's words were full of resentment and anger. His figure was hidden in the darkness, making it hard to see clearly, but the grinding sound of gnashing teeth was so clear that it made people shudder: "I have hated witches and Gu for generations of emperors. As soon as the ordinary subjects touch it, they will die without a place to bury them. Just because I am the son of the emperor, I was able to save my life, but I can no longer ascend the throne. Ruan Lan! You know how much I have in my heart. Are you unwilling!"

Ruan Lan closed her eyes and sighed, "So, Your Highness, you... jumped off the tower and committed suicide."

"It is better to serve Lord Xichen than to live a humble life. Lord Xichen wants to find more people who can borrow contracts with him, and I hope to bring chaos to Yin Xian's country, hahahaha... and then take it back .”

"Take it?" Ruan Lan was surprised, "But Your Highness, you are already dead."

Yin Cheng roared: "So what if I die! This world is mine!" He grabbed Ruan Lan's arms, and immediately pulled Ruan Lan over, his words were full of unwarranted hopes, "Ah Lan , Didn’t you say that you didn’t betray me? Then you help me to bring Yin Jian over here and kill him for me. He and I are brothers, and he can replace me as Lord Xichen’s servant. At that time... At that time, I became the emperor, and let you be a general under one person and above ten thousand people, so that your descendants will receive the grace of the emperor from generation to generation."

"No——" Ruan Lan struggled, "Now the world is peaceful and the country is prosperous, Your Majesty... Yin Jian is an enlightened king, he does his duty for the world, Your Highness, you can't—poof—"

At this moment, Ruan Lan's eyes became dizzy, and a mouthful of pus and blood spewed out of her throat.

"Ah Lan... what did you say?" Yin Cheng's tone became stern, "Could it be that when I was still the crown prince, Yin Xian didn't fulfill his duties? Why did you turn to him after just a few years?! "

Ruan Lan didn't know what Yin Cheng did to him, he only felt a sharp pain in his chest, his body was squeezed by a hard object, and he spit out a mouthful of blood, he said: "Your Majesty governs the country well, Ruan Lan will not allow His Highness to do such a thing. Sinful things. I...will not agree to His Highness...uh!"

In an instant, the pain in his lungs was uncontrollable, as if something had swelled in his body, and every inch of his skin felt a pain that was about to be torn apart.

Kekou still said: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty is a responsible monarch, Ruan Lan will not allow His Majesty—"

There seemed to be blood overflowing in front of his eyes.Ruan Lan's headache was about to split, and her body was in severe pain as if it was being split.

——It was like a punishment of quartering the body by five horses.

Yin Cheng was furious, and said word by word: "Ruan Lan, you betrayed me! I will never forgive you." He let go of Ruan Lan's arm, and Ruan Lan, who was already weak, fell to the ground immediately.

"Pfft——" In an instant, Ruan Lan lay on the ground in embarrassment, and a stream of blood gushed out of her mouth again.His throat was filled with a sweet smell, and he supported his upper body with his arms that could still move a little.

"No... I don't agree..."

Ruan Lan panted heavily, as if she couldn't breathe any more.

The eyes are becoming more and more blurred, and even the original darkness can hardly be seen clearly.

"Your Majesty..." Ruan Lan called softly with her eyes closed.

Yin Cheng sneered: "Ruan Lan—I'll send you to hell—"

"Ahem..." Ruan Lan said with the last bit of strength, "Your Highness... Your Highness, the late emperor, never treated His Highness badly, and never wanted to pass the throne to... Yin, Yin Xian, first Huang Zhao met me and said, let me assist the crown prince well... After a hundred years, I will assist you to ascend the throne of God and become a wise king."

"Impossible!" Yin Cheng roared, "You still want to lie to me!"

Ruan Lan resisted the urge to continue coughing up blood, and said, "Your Highness, the first emperor is strict with you because he wants to train you and spoil other princes, because he does not treat them as heirs. The first emperor... the most trusted It has always been His Highness! Cough..."

"Really! Really?" Yin Cheng's footsteps of "Knock Knock Knock" panicked, his voice was no longer as angry as before, "Really? Father, he really didn't suspect me?"

Ruan Lan felt her body suddenly relaxed a lot, and the sense of oppression in her body disappeared, and she knew that Yin Cheng had listened to all his words, so she continued: "Your Highness, have you forgotten, forgotten... These things I once said to me... I have told you all of them, do you really not remember them all..."

"...Tell me...really?" Yin Cheng began to falter to himself, and said in a daze, "I... I forgot?..."

Listening to Yin Cheng's incoherent state, Ruan Lan couldn't help but recall that Taoist Xuan Mo once told him that Xi Chen is best at finding the weak point in people's heart, and then continuously expanding that point.

——Finally fell into the bottomless, sinful, irreversible abyss in my heart.

Yin Cheng forgot how kind the late emperor was to him, and only remembered the neglect and injustice he suffered; he forgot Ruan Lan's loyalty and honesty to him, and only remembered the misunderstanding he saw that day.

He only remembers his own throne, but he doesn't care about the lives of the common people in the world.

It started when Yin Cheng promised Xichen to kill Zhang's family.

No, no—it should be when Xichen realized that the crown prince he least wanted to lose in his heart, Yin Cheng had already exposed the most vulnerable part of his heart to Xichen without reservation.

"Without the appearance of an emperor, the crown prince is destined to sit for a short time."

Yin Cheng subtly remembered Xichen's words in his heart.

Even if he told himself in his heart, he didn't want to believe it.

Since then, there has been no turning back.