Thousands of Miles

Because it was too cold at night, Xi Meng woke up many times throughout the night, so he put on his clothes and got up when it was just dawn.

In such a cold day, it is much more comfortable to move around than to lie on a bed with nothing.

"Ximeng, you're finally out!"

As soon as Ximeng opened the door, a pair of cold hands came up and held onto his hand tightly, as if holding onto a treasure.

Ximeng took a closer look, and it turned out to be Xueshi Wang, the director of the painting academy.His face was flushed from the cold, and his clothes were still stained with a thick layer of cold air. He didn't know how long he had stood outside the door.

"Scholar Wang?" Ximeng looked up at him in surprise.One was surprised how he found him, and the other was surprised that he would come to find him himself.

"I came to look for you to go back. You child, His Majesty is angry and you don't admit your mistake to him, but you ran home without a word." Wang Xueshi complained, "In order to find you, Your Majesty asked the shadow Wei almost searched the roofs of every house in Tokyo, and I found yours. I didn’t dare to go in because I was afraid of disturbing your sleep, so I waited outside for a quarter of an hour.”

"Your Majesty? Looking for me?" Ximeng was even more surprised.It was obviously His Majesty who drove me away yesterday!

"Letting you go is sometimes an angry word, not really letting you go." Wang Xueshi helped Ximeng into the carriage, and at the same time argued for Zhao Ji, "For example, have you seen it? Folk couples quarreled, then The husband said in a fit of temper, "Go away! What about his wife? Could it be that she really went back to her mother's house? Where should I put my face? Of course I was begging to get back together with him. Your Majesty is the same, just say so casually." When I say it, I don't mean to let you really go."

"What does that mean?" Ximeng likes to gnaw his nails when he gets confused. Remembering what Master said, he retracted the fingers that had just been brought to his mouth, rubbed the corner of his clothes, and asked suddenly , "What does it mean for me to ask him?"

"Uh...you can understand it that way." Wang Xueshi said, "Anyway, come back with me later, don't be self-willed."

"Go back?" Ximeng finally came to his senses, and he and Xueshi Wang were on the carriage back to the palace, and hurriedly said, "The painting is still at home, please allow me to go down and get it."

"I'll ask someone to fetch it." Wang Xueshi sighed, "You'd better go back with me quickly. Otherwise, His Majesty doesn't know how many things will be smashed in the study."

"Ah?" Ximeng wondered if he had heard it wrong. Since he and His Majesty were strangers, at most they just met each other. Would he deserve to throw something for himself?

"You don't know yet, Your Majesty, he is your master." Wang Xueshi glanced at Ximeng cautiously, seeing that he didn't react too excitedly, and then continued, "He was afraid of scaring you at first, so he didn't Tell you the truth. In the past few years, he wanted to tell you the truth several times, but he never found the right time. So, it happened like this..."

"Master...Your Majesty? Your Majesty...Master?" Ximeng didn't show any surprise, nor did he panic. He just repeated these two words lightly and said to himself, "Then is he His Majesty?" Or Master?"

"Your master is your majesty, and your majesty is your master." Wang Xueshi said, "Where did he ask such a question? He is naturally both."

"No, it's different." Ximeng said seriously, "If Master asked Ximeng to go back to paint, Ximeng must try his best to draw the best paintings for him; if His Majesty asked Ximeng to paint, then At once……"

"Then..." Ximeng shook his head in despair, "I won't draw anymore."

The cold wind outside the car was harsh, and Ximeng's low soliloquy was mixed with the rumbling wind, but it was still clearly audible, and it reached Xueshi Wang's ears word by word.

"You child, how can you talk like that?" Xueshi Wang patted Ximeng's head with a smile, "Don't talk nonsense when you see Your Majesty."

When Ximeng and Wang Xueshi returned to the palace, someone was throwing things in the study and losing his temper. He could not find half of his usual refined and refined appearance. He looked like a lion who had lost his mate. Everyone near was torn to shreds.

The servants only dared to wait outside the door, and did not dare to make a sound, for fear of attracting the attention of the person inside and becoming the target of venting their anger.

With this posture, ten lives are not enough to kill him.

"Li Shun! You dog slave!" The emperor inside shouted angrily, "Get out!"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Eunuch Li was so frightened that his legs trembled, he almost crawled into the study, and fell to the ground, "Your Majesty, the servant is..."

"You don't know how to live and die! How dare you lie to me!" Zhao Ji was furious, and he picked up the inkstone on the table full of ink and threw it at Eunuch Li, "What kind of person is Ximeng! Maybe he won’t come to bid farewell to his master! You must be lying and not reporting it! I’ll kill you right now!”

"Your Majesty is wronged..." Eunuch Li quibbled, "I really haven't seen it, I really haven't seen Lin..."

"Shut up!" Zhao Ji yelled, pointing at Eunuch Li, "Come here! Drag this bastard who doesn't tell the truth out and behead him!"

"Your Majesty, please forgive me...Your Majesty, please forgive me..."

When Xi Meng followed Bachelor Wang to the door of the study, what he saw was the scene of Eunuch Li being dragged out crying.

Ximeng was startled, and weakly retracted the step he had just taken.

"Scholar Wang, where is that person going?" Xi Meng asked tremblingly.

"Go back to my hometown." Wang Xueshi replied cryptically.

"It seems that he doesn't really want to go back." Ximeng turned his head to look at the crying man, heard him still muttering such words as "I don't dare", "Your Majesty, please forgive me", and then turned to ask Xueshi Wang, "Does Your Majesty want Ximeng to say the same? But Ximeng won't."

"Uh... this..." Xueshi Wang laughed, "You better go in quickly."

"Yeah." Ximeng nodded, and walked in cautiously, only to hear the sound of "crackling" falling things inside, and felt a little weak in his steps.

I have never seen Master lose his temper.Oh no, he is His Majesty...

"Who! Who let you in!" The angry emperor noticed that someone had come in, and smashed a glazed cup at Ximeng's feet with a bang, "Get out of here!"

"Master..." It's just a day, but is it really as long as a year?Ximeng stared blankly at the angry man in front of him. Maybe others thought his appearance was terrible, but when Ximeng looked at him now, he only saw the infinite loss and emaciation hidden in his seemingly violent eyes. His heart felt like being stabbed by a knife. It hurts like gouging.

"Master!" Xi Meng rushed forward and hugged Zhao Ji, tears streaming down from the corners of his eyes, "Master, don't be angry, please don't be angry..."

"Xi Meng? It's you?" Zhao Ji came back to his senses in surprise, the erupting volcano was instantly cooled by the boy's tears.

"Yeah." Ximeng nodded, opened his clothes and knelt down on the ground covered with broken porcelain and glass shards, "Master, Ximeng knew he was wrong, don't be angry anymore."

"Get up quickly." Zhao Ji's reaction was much faster than Ximeng's when he got up, he almost picked up Ximeng from the ground, looked at the two bright red bloodstains left by him when he knelt on his knees, and frowned. Frowning, "How can you do this? Your knees are all cut."

"It's okay." Ximeng shook his head.

"Sit down quickly, Master will bandage you." Zhao Ji pressed Ximeng on the chair, and when he was looking for wound medicine on the messy shelf, he realized that the medicine bottle had already been smashed by himself in the venting of anger just now. .

However, he didn't want anyone else to show up at this time, so Zhao Ji found a piece of clean white silk, wiped off the blood on Ximeng's knee, then tore off a thin silk cloth, and wrapped it around the wound on his knee Another circle, afraid that his wound would be hurt again, or infected with some germs that shouldn't be infected.

"Master, I can't bend my knee anymore..." Xi Meng looked at Zhao Ji pleadingly, "I can't be entangled anymore."

"I can't bend my knees, master hug you." Zhao Ji pampered Ximeng's little nose.Actually, I did it on purpose!

Seeing that the master was so happy, Ximeng had no choice but to let him play on her knees, wrapping her knees like steamed buns so that she could not move.

"Haha, hahaha." After dressing Ximeng, looking at his "masterpiece" on him, Zhao Ji couldn't help laughing.

Ximeng leaned back in his chair in despair.My knee was injured and I could still walk, but now that it's healed, I really can't walk anymore.

Zhao Ji said that because Ximeng was injured in his knee and couldn't walk, he had to rest in his imperial study for the past few nights, and he didn't have to go back to the painting academy for the time being.

Xi Meng once again lived a life like a canary in a cage. He could only lie on the bed all day long, looking at various atlases, studying the brushwork, layout, coloring, and summarizing of famous masters of the past dynasties, so that he can use them flexibly in future creations. .

Master is in a good mood these past few days, always smiling in front of Ximeng, and always rewarding him with this and that, but he doesn't say what good things happened to make him so happy, Ximeng always feels that he seems to have something to hide secret.

But Ximeng has his own sense of propriety, he is the emperor, and he can't ask about things he doesn't tell himself.Especially after Ximeng learned from several eunuchs that "go back to my hometown" originally meant death, I was afraid that if I asked too many questions, I would be ordered to "go back to my hometown" by someone impatient one day.

Being bored all day long is also reading. Ximeng tiptoed around on a shelf higher than his own, and found a small book with a slightly rough texture, and pulled it out of the shelf. .

This is also a book of pictures, but the workmanship is very rough. At first glance, it is not the work of a professional painter in the court, but more like the hand of a third-rate painter in the folk.

Ximeng was curious, how could such a book be kept in the study at the master's level?I want to see the cover, but the book has no beginning or end, even the cover is gone.

The whole book is full of little people drawn with simple lines. The little people are so simple and rough that there are three dots of ink directly on the eyes and nose. Some pages are a little man holding a sword, and some pages are two The villains are competing with swords.Although the painting is rough and crude, the movements are extremely vivid.

Ximeng secretly felt that this is actually a valuable and good picture book, and at the same time learned the movements in the picture book, and then connected these movements together according to the text on the side to see what kind of swordsmanship it drew.

Some things will not be known until you try them, but once you practice them yourself, you will feel the infinite subtlety of them.Ximeng found that the swordplay in this album was as smooth as flowing clouds and flowing water, beautiful yet powerful, light and decisive, and couldn't help but silently memorize every movement in the sword manual.

Ximeng memorized things very quickly, this little sword manual was memorized in his heart in only an hour.

It is always pleasant to learn what you want to learn, not to mention that this is an unexpected gain. After Ximeng finished memorizing the sword manual, he couldn't hold back his excitement, and put the book back on the shelf, and he couldn't read the rest of the manual. , skipping to the door of the study, wanting to see the scenery outside.

As soon as Xi Meng ran two steps towards the door, he bumped into Zhao Ji walking in the door with a smile on his face, fearing that he would say that he could not lie down properly, he quickly turned around and ran back.

"Stop, I see you!" Zhao Ji waved to Xi Meng with a smile, "Come here! Don't you think it's boring to be alone? I'll find you something fun."

"What is it?" Xi Meng, who had turned his head and ran away, turned back, ran to Zhao Ji and obediently called "Master".

"Hahaha, go and bring it up."

As soon as Zhao Ji waved his hand, several servants immediately carried a big iron cage into the courtyard and put it on the ground in the courtyard.

Ximeng's eyes widened when he saw what was in the iron cage—it was a white peacock as crystal clear as snow!It's just that it's still half big and not too small, with its tail feathers dragging behind it neither too long nor too short, like a noble little princess.

The eyes of the white peacock are light red, like two crystal beads accidentally lost by a fairy in the snowy world, shining brightly and radiantly.

However, it is very proud, holding its noble head high, looking sacred and inviolable.

"Do you like it?" Zhao Ji was delighted to see Ximeng's astonished expression.

"Yeah." Ximeng nodded.

"This peacock is snow-white, rare in the world, and it is a tribute from Dayue Kingdom." Zhao Ji said with a smile, "If you like it, Master will send it to you and keep it for you. How about keeping you company?"

"Raise it?" Ximeng looked at the proud species that was crystal clear like snow, blinked happily, nodded and replied, "Thank you, Master! But I don't know what it likes to eat?"

"Come on, Master will tell you." Zhao Ji took Ximeng's hand and walked into the study, "Peacocks are omnivorous, and usually like to eat some grass and grains. Of course, you can also feed it fruits, as if insects also eat fruits." of……"

"Well... that's great." Ximeng secretly rejoiced that peacocks are not picky eaters, so it's easy to feed them.

This white peacock has been raised by Ximeng for three years, serving it to eat and drink like a master every day, but it has really become Ximeng's master. Its pure white and flawless tail feathers let a peacock spread its tail, as a reward for Ximeng's careful care.

Note: The white peacock is a kind of peacock with a genetic mutation. It can be artificially reproduced in modern times, so it is relatively common, but it was really very, very rare in ancient times~ So what the master gave Ximeng is really a rare thing for fried chicken~~

[-]. Juvenile Madness