The flower is a tulip [Chu Liuxiang]

The camel team finally set foot on the boundless Gobi Desert.There is no road in front of them, only yellow sand stretching from sky to earth.The ghostly cry of the wind that rang in their ears not only disturbed their sleep at night, but even during the whole day, when they talked face to face with each other, it was difficult to suppress the howling.

Moreover, the scorching sun that Hu Tiehua had complained about before has now become a luxury expectation.Because it is only around noon every day that you can feel a little warmth in the car, and the most difficult time is from the evening to the dawn of the next day.

It is clearly only the winter season in early October, but the bitterness on the Gobi Desert has surpassed the severe cold in March and September.All of them could only wrap in the thickest clothes, curled up in the carriage, sealed the windows and the front curtain tightly, and dared not breathe until noon.

Hu Tiehua was suddenly a little curious about how their coachman, Xiaopan, could sit outside such a cold compartment.When he poked his head out while it was warm, he found that the car shaft was covered with a big leather jacket that Xiao Pan took off, which was thick enough to wrap a person into a bear.Hu Tiehua laughed loudly, and looked forward again, but saw the tower-like figure of the camel driver at a glance.

He casually grabbed Ji Bingyan with some curiosity, and said, "Look at him...how is he not afraid of heat or cold?"

Ji Bingyan followed his gaze and said calmly: "That's what a stone camel is."

Hu Tiehua scratched his head and said, "Stone camel? Such a strange name."

Ji Bingyan said: "He can't speak, I don't know what his original name was, so I took that name."

Hu Tiehua was surprised and said: "Can't speak? Is it natural or..." He suddenly stopped, thinking of the stone camel's appearance as if it had been burned by the fire of purgatory, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.

Ji Bingyan nodded calmly and said: "Someone poisoned him to make him deaf and dumb, and tied him up in the desert to expose him to the sun, blinding his eyes."

Hu Tiehua almost jumped out of the car in shock, and said loudly: "What are you talking about? He...he is not only deaf and dumb, but also...he is also blind? Then how can he know the way? How can he drive the camel horse? "

Chu Liuxiang, who heard their conversation, leaned against the front of the carriage and sighed, "If it's a beast, even if it becomes deaf and blind, it will still find a way to survive. Since this person has suffered such torture, he must have It has restored part of the beast's instincts, so it can survive and communicate with the camel horse."

Ji Bingyan nodded, but asked back: "Do you know who persecuted him?"

Just as Chu Liuxiang asked the word "who is it", his eyes flashed suddenly, and he asked, "Could it be Shi Guanyin?"

Ji Bingyan didn't answer, but his expression said everything.

Hu Tiehua exclaimed again: "So, he knows Shi Guanyin's lair? Then why do we need to find out elsewhere?"

Ji Bingyan sighed: "Look at him now, will he take us there?"

Chu Liuxiang's expression changed, and he said, "You mean, the stone camel doesn't know the purpose of our trip at all?"

Ji Bingyan said: "I didn't tell him."

Hu Tiehua said: "Why didn't you tell him? Doesn't he want revenge?"

He was excited, and his voice became louder and louder, but then he felt a cold gaze, and quickly closed his mouth.Only then did Yi Dian Hong look away, her lips moved, as if it was the word "noisy".

Hu Tiehua rubbed her nose following Chu Liuxiang's example, turned around and sat beside Huamanlou, and hummed, "Look at how kind and gentle Xiaohua is, unlike some people who keep a dead face and don't speak all day long."

Hua Manlou smiled and said, "Brother Hong means that revenge requires the ability to revenge. What's more, the memory of the past is hard to erase."

Hu Tiehua thought for a while and said: "You said that he has no ability to seek revenge from Shi Guanyin, that's true, but we still have us now! Could it be... Could it be that he himself is afraid and dare not go?"

Hua Manlou could hear the contempt in his tone, but he still said calmly: "Fear is a human nature, and there is nothing to be ashamed of."

Hu Tiehua could only snort noncommittally.

Ji Bingyan looked at the sky that suddenly darkened outside the car, and was about to tell them to seal the car, but saw the dark figure of the stone camel striding towards this side.

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The stone camel's gestures were fast and chaotic, Chu Liuxiang and the others couldn't make sense of it, but Ji Bingyan's expression suddenly became darker than the sky.Xiao Pan, who was smiling and listening to everyone's chat just now, now looked flustered, as if he was going to cry at any moment.

Chu Liuxiang asked tentatively, "What did he say?"

Ji Bingyan didn't answer, but jumped off the curtain of the car, looking around quickly.Xiao Pan also followed behind him, his eyes full of fear.

When Chu Liuxiang wanted to ask again, Ji Bingyan had already nodded at the stone camel's new round of gestures, pointed in a direction and said: "There is a ditch over there, go there." Then he walked on foot.

Xiao Pan followed without hesitation, and although Chu Liuxiang and the others didn't understand the meaning, they also took steps.Only Hu Tiehua watched them move forward, and the stone camel was busy driving the animals to keep up, and shouted inexplicably: "Hey! Why are you crazy!"

Ji Bingyan said without looking back, "Look up."

Hu Tiehua looked up to the sky as he said, and saw that the sky was already darker than dusk, and the sun still hanging in midair turned into a huge black fireball at some point.And when his eyes fell, he saw the thick and heavy dark clouds rapidly rising from the sky.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the sand and dust hit his face like a knife.Hu Tiehua was startled, and hurried to catch up with Ji Bingyan and the others, shouting amidst the howling wind: "What the hell is going on?"

"Heifengchuan's black storm!"

Ji Bingyan yelled with the same force as if arguing.After roaring, he waved his hand to signal them to hide in a deep natural ditch, and watched the stone camel drive the camel to the edge of the ditch before letting out a breath.

Hu Tiehua still didn't understand anything, and was about to speak when she felt the people around her shaking violently.Then Xiao Pan said in a weeping voice: "This is impossible! There are only black storms in spring!"

Ji Bingyan said coldly: "Nothing is impossible. If you don't want to die, you should cheer up and get through this."

Hu Tiehua looked at the sky that was as dark as the night in an instant, and couldn't help cursing: "This is a damn desert! Damn Shi Guanyin!"

Chu Liuxiang silently shook her head, thinking of the three missing girls.Have they really been brought to this cruel Gobi Desert?

He just sighed lowly, but a hand stretched out beside him, gently holding his fingers.Although in this violent cold wind, that hand still carried some reassuring warmth.

"Flowers all over the building?"

As soon as the name was uttered, it was already lost in the huge wind.Although there was darkness in front of them, Chu Liuxiang and the others intuitively felt that in the direction where the dark clouds were growing crazily, a heavy sand wall was pushing towards them like an overwhelming mountain.

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The storm lasted until midnight before it showed signs of weakening.Everyone hid in the sand ditch and did not dare to lift it. Everyone was covered in sand.Hu Tiehua wanted to doze off twice, but Ji Bingyan forced her to wake her up, because in this cold and harsh environment, once she fell asleep, she couldn't wake up again.

Chu Liuxiang and Hua Manlou held each other's hands all the time, as if in this way they could get more strength from each other.Chu Liuxiang felt that at such a time, it wasn't just herself who needed comfort.

Xiao Pan really deserved to be the one who fell over from the desert Hu Dahai. He was afraid, but he kept pulling his leather jacket tightly.At this time, even Hu Tiehua no longer laughed at such a dress, because the clothes wrapped around him were thicker and bulkier than this, but they still couldn't stop the bone-piercing chill.

A little red curled up a little further away from them.Like the stone camel, he has tightly packed his body together to maintain his body temperature as much as possible.And his face was still so indifferent, as if turning a blind eye to the approaching death.If it wasn't for the emerald green light shining in those eyes, showing his excitement at the edge of life and death, it would be difficult to tell who is more like a statue, he or the stone camel.

Some of these seven people were just strangers before, some were just friends, and some had been separated for seven years, but in this disaster that could almost destroy the world, a unique feeling gradually developed between them. emotion.That seems to be beyond ordinary friendship, because at this moment, they have experienced the test of life and death together.

The emotion between people is not measured by time.

Ji Bingyan listened to the wind outside the sand ditch, and suddenly smiled.The smile appeared on his usually expressionless face, which seemed abrupt, not to mention that his face was covered with dust, and his original appearance could hardly be seen clearly.

Hu Tiehua burst into laughter all of a sudden, but when he saw clearly what Ji Bingyan handed him, his laughter was so loud that it overwhelmed the wind.

"Damn rooster, oh damn rooster!" Chu Liuxiang and the others watched him lift up the wine bottle and laughed loudly, "You are the cutest person in the world!"

Ji Bingyan unloaded all the supplies in the cart as much as possible in advance, so everyone can share some spirits to keep out the cold.Chu Liuxiang took a sip of the wine, feeling the warmth starting to flow in her body, and said with a smile: "It's really the first time for me to drink with friends in this kind of place and environment."

Hua Manlou let out a "hmm" and said, "It's my first time too."

Chu Liuxiang looked at the starlight leaking from the clouds and sprinkled on him, and gradually felt very peaceful in her heart, and said in a low voice: "I can't imagine that you are here, in this desert, in such a terrifying place... you deserve it." It belongs to the small building full of flowers, where you can have a drink with friends and close friends on a sunny afternoon."

Hua Manlou was startled, then chuckled, and said, "Why do you all think of me as a weak young master? Before leaving, Boss Ji tried to persuade me to stay."

Chu Liuxiang nodded and said, "I believe this is something Lao Ji would do. Then why didn't you agree?"

Hua Manlou said: "Boss Ji and Brother Hu are your friends, and so are Brother Hong and I. I dare not say that I am better than everyone else, but I can't see where the business is. You know, people who know me, my friends... …I mean, none of those old friends would just think of me as a blind man."

Chu Liuxiang held his hand and said sincerely: "Me neither. I just think that you are such a good person, like a perfect masterpiece created by God with painstaking efforts, you should not get involved in this kind of environment. It doesn't match up."

Hua Manlou laughed and said, "Perfect? ​​Did you misuse the word? How can there be a perfect blind man in the world?"

Chu Liuxiang said solemnly: "If there is one, then it is not someone else."

Hua Manlou's smile faded away gradually, and he seemed to have heard the sincere and deep emotion in Chu Liuxiang's words, so he lowered his head and pondered.After a long time, he said softly: "Don't think that I only belong to those scenes where the flowers are blooming before the moon and the moon is under the moon. You don't know my past experience. I have also taken risks and witnessed death. The place where I drank with Lu Xiaofeng, In addition to my small building, there are some very strange places, and you won't go to all of them."

Chu Liuxiang raised his eyebrows.

Naturally, from the first time he saw Huamanlou, he discovered that this young man possessed exquisite martial arts that are rare in the Jianghu, and he was not completely ignorant of the world.He also thought more than once that Hua Manlou must have been an excellent and impressive person in his own era.

Because of this, when he was investigating the case of floating corpses at sea, Hua Manlou relied on his extraordinary insight to help him uncover the cloud in front of him again and again, allowing him to clearly see the hidden truth.

This man, in a dark and lightless world, always brings light to people.

Therefore, such a person would not be an outcast who lives in a small building and is independent from the world.He must have his story, his wonderful.

For example his friend, Lu Xiaofeng.

After Hua Manlou told Chu Liuxiang about his own background, the name Lu Xiaofeng was never mentioned again.Chu Liuxiang felt that it was a symbol of Huamanlou saying goodbye to his past.

After all, none of them can do anything to bring Huamanlou back to the original era.The era a hundred years later.

But now, under the starry sky in the desert after the black storm, when everyone was drinking wine in celebration, Huamanlou mentioned Lu Xiaofeng.

Is it because such a scene and such an atmosphere reminded him of his past life and his good friends from the past?

Chu Liuxiang couldn't help but fell into deep thought, and his hand was slowly touching the side of the bridge of his nose again.After a while, he said: "Lu Xiaofeng... are you very, very good friends?"

Hua Manlou nodded with a smile and said, "Friends who are born and die - just like you, Brother Hu, and Boss Ji. Oh, by the way, I haven't told you yet, Lingxi Yizhi is my fingering method, which was taught by Lu Xiaofeng .You should really see him do it himself!"

Chu Liuxiang's hand suddenly froze on his nose, and he forgot what he wanted to say.It wasn't until Ji Bingyan greeted them that he said bitterly: "It's just fingering. Starting tomorrow, I will teach you lightness kung fu!"

Hua Manlou was startled, he didn't know what to say when he wanted to speak.Just at this time, there was a rush of horseshoes in the distance, and it didn't take long to get close.

Ji Bingyan looked at the knights who surrounded the seven of them and the camel team, and said coldly, "Who are you?"

A knight riding a tall horse and wearing shining golden armor came out more and more, condescendingly squinted at Ji Bingyan, and said loudly: "You merchants are so ignorant that you even contacted me, the 'Breaking Fire Centipede Gang' I don’t even know it! I’m the boss, 'Fire Centipede' Wu Ba! If you are sensible, hand over all the goods and money, and I will spare your dog's life!"

The author has something to say:

This chapter is also called "On how to give a gang a tyrannical and cool name", "Fifty ways to make Lao Chu jealous", "Thank you once again for Mr. Lu Xiaoji, who is lying behind the scenes and assisting God"...