After being mistaken for a fellow by Long Aotian

In Youhuangli, the doors and windows are still closed, and old man Shen is not there.

"It's already wartime, is Master still performing missions outside?" Zhou Xun thought.

Unknowingly, his heart suddenly beat violently, as if there was a premonition of some crisis welling up in his heart.

Zhou Xun had lost many things in the first half of his life, and now, he doesn't want to lose any more.

Zhou Xun pursed his lips and found a secret entrance in the backyard.He pushed open the little door and touched the dust.

In the dust, there is a quiet courtyard, no one is here.

Zhou Xun walked in step by step, the air was mingled with the breath of night wind, cold and cool, and there was also a strange fishy smell.He didn't see anyone, only the moonlight, not far away was Old Man Shen's bedroom, and the bedroom was also pitch black.

He held his breath and walked over step by step.Through the window, he saw nothing.

There was a strange smell in the house.

Zhou Xun reached out and pushed the door open.

He finally saw the inside of the house clearly—— what the moonlight illuminated was not only the interior, but also——

The blood on the couch! !

! !

"Hush." ​​A voice suddenly sounded behind him and covered his mouth.

"You're still here, as Mr. Shen said." The man said in a low voice, "Come with me, and I'll tell you the truth."

……

Fukang Princess Mansion.

Zhou Xun did not expect that he would meet Lu Xiandao in this place.When Lu Xiandao saw him coming, he was startled for a moment, and then led him the way.

The place where the old man Shen lives now is a small courtyard in the Princess Mansion. Before entering the small courtyard, Zhou Xun heard the old man Shen's joyful voice: "Feng Shui turns around, old man, I have lived for almost 60 years, and I finally see you." Until you cried for me once..."

"I should have known that a scourge like you should live for thousands of years." Fukang's bitter voice came from inside, "I'm leaving, you can do what you want!"

"Let's go, let's go, lest Lao Lu..."

"Huh." Fukang snorted, "You're not so stinky. Old Lu understands it very well."

When Zhou Xun entered the room, old man Shen leaned back on the pillow again.When Fukang came to see him just now, he braced himself up, but now he lay back down with a pale face.Seeing Zhou Xun coming in, he sighed and said, "I knew you, a brat, would come here sooner or later."

Zhou Xun didn't answer his words, he sat beside the old man and asked, "What's going on?"

"I was shot coldly, and there was poison on the cold arrow." Old man Shen sighed, "I have been bullied for most of my life..."

"Does the emperor know?"

"Don't blame the emperor, he doesn't want you to worry, and you can't help much." Old man Shen said hastily.

Zhou Xun lowered his face, looked at the copybooks next to old man Shen's pillow, and said in silence for a while, "I can help."

"What a fart you are!" Old man Shen blew his beard and stared.

"Then who else?" Zhou Xun retorted.

Old man Shen: ...

……

"General".

City defense map.

Red Lotus Sect.

Zhou Xun wrote all the words on the rice paper, and wrote three words in the last place.

"Yanyunfang".

The poisonous arrow almost killed old man Shen, so he had to hide in the princess mansion to recuperate.As for the source of his attack, through the analysis of the arrows, the Black Clothes Envoys have learned that it came from the spies planted in the capital in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

——The root of all this comes from the old man Shen discovering that the "General" from the Northern Wei Dynasty and the "Red Lotus Sect" from Xiliang were colluding with each other and leaking information about Jingguo.But the direct reason why he was attacked was because he found the trace of the Red Lotus Sect in Yanyunfang, and found out the identity of the "general" - a woman.

Today's offensive in the Northern Wei Dynasty is also inseparable from the assistance of these Shushu.

Yanyunfang, Yanyunfang, Zhou Xun emphasized these three characters over and over again, and finally stayed on the last two characters he wrote.

"Easy".

"...Master, we found it." The black-clothed emissary stopped beside Zhou Xun and said softly, "The goddess is indeed..."

"Little Eunuch Li's younger sister."

"She was separated from Little Eunuch Li during the famine more than ten years ago, and then she was sold to Xiliang. Then, she was bought by the eldest prince of Xiliang and placed in Yanyunfang as a spy. Over the years, she He has been working as a spy for Xiliang, but later he got involved with the Northern Wei Dynasty. Most of the Red Lotus Sect members under him are women, and apart from raising money, they also have the function of inquiring information." The man in black said.

"In the past three months, where is the list of people who have had close contact with her?" Zhou Xun asked.

The man in black presented the list, and Zhou Xun flipped through it page by page. There were many celebrities in the government and the opposition.

This also means that if there is no real evidence, if this woman is arrested, it will definitely cause a great disturbance.

"Do you want to find a reason to arrest her?"

"No, we have to find a way to let her show her feet. Not only that, but also use her to find someone from the Northern Wei Dynasty. Now the 'general' is our confidant, and she is just a pawn working for the prince of Xiliang. Now, the first prince is fighting for power with the second prince, and he doesn't care about Jingguo." Zhou Xun said, "We have to find a way to find out the time and signal for her connection with the Northern Wei Dynasty."

Zhou Xun thought for a while, and suddenly thought of a person.

Aunt Lu.

"Go and find out, what's the difference between Revlon and the usual day on May [-]th?" he said.

The man in black withdrew.Only Zhou Xun was left, sitting indoors.

He took over the matter behind the emperor's back. In name, Old Man Shen still took the lead, but in reality it was him who did it.

He did not tell the emperor about it.

Zhou Xun flipped through the directory repeatedly, going through all the information they might come across in his mind.After a long time, he stroked the last column of words with his fingers and said softly.

"There's actually one more person," he said.

Xie Zhengqing.

The so-called blitzkrieg and pincer attack cannot be used in actual combat. No one should know about it except for the three people who were chatting in the imperial garden that day.

But in the military newspapers intercepted by the Ziyi Envoy from the Northern Wei Dynasty, such a term was actually used.Old man Shen couldn't understand why, but he...

Zhou Xun stared at the directory and did not speak for a long time.

……

It rained heavily in summer.

Xiao Lizi sat under the eaves and dozed off with a lantern in his hand.The emperor was still fighting fiercely in the imperial study, and the voice of the emperor reading the military newspaper could be heard from time to time.

"Everyone who hinders us is scum!!"

"Make Jingguo Great Again!!"

"Eat my Dongfeng Express!!!"

"Want to flood the Seventh Army? It's so big!!"

Xiao Lizi wasn't supposed to be on duty today, but he couldn't worry about the emperor, so he came over to have a look.Hearing the emperor's energetic voice, Xiao Lizi felt much more at ease.

In fact, he really didn't want Jing Guo to fight with the Northern Wei Dynasty.However, unlike those ministers who are full of appeasement, what he is worried about is another thing.

Looking at the rain falling into the flower beds, the mud in the small garden outside the imperial study was messy again.Xiao Lizi rubbed his eyes and thought, Luyao will have to call someone to clean it early tomorrow morning.

On a rainy day like this, when people step on them, they are covered with mud, sticky and uncomfortable.

He remembered that his sister hated such mud when she was a child.

"Little Eunuch Li."

A voice rang in his ears.

Little Eunuch Li raised his head, saw the elegant young man in front of him, and hurriedly said: "Oh, it's Mr. Zhou, Mr. Zhou is here to find the emperor, right? This slave..."

"The emperor is busy." Zhou Xun shook his head and smiled.

The two sat down together.The rain hit the ground, and Zhou Xun put his foot back. Xiao Lizi noticed it carefully and said, "Young master Zhou doesn't like rainy days?"

"I don't like it." Zhou Xun said, "It's wet when it rains."

"The servant's younger sister also hates rainy days." Xiao Lizi bald by accident.

Just as he felt that this sentence was a bit offensive, he heard Zhou Xun's voice: "Speaking of which, what kind of person is Little Eunuch Li's sister? Eunuch Li has been looking for her."

As he said that, Zhou Xun himself smiled as if he was quite embarrassed, and said: "I have no close relatives, brothers, or younger sisters, so I feel a little..."

"She..."

Maybe the rainy night is suitable for memories, or maybe Zhou Xun's voice is too gentle. In the rain, Xiao Lizi, holding the lantern, even started to ramble about his past.

"She has a boyish personality. When I was a child, she often ran barefoot with me on the field ridges, got dirty, and then went back and was scolded by my mother. Then I was always scolded and cried. She She can talk, and after coaxing my mother, she came to coax me again." Xiao Lizi scratched her head and said, "Actually, she is quite beautiful. Another girl in the village bought a new dress and wore it in front of her all day long to show off. .I was like, I’m going to buy her a dress too, she’s definitely prettier than her in it.”

He talked about many past events related to his sister, from climbing trees, to catching loach, to many years past.Finally, he said: "...In short, she is a little girl with a clean smile."

Zhou Xun listened to his words in silence, very seriously, and did not speak for a long time.

"Little Eunuch Li."

"Ok?"

"...I don't know how she is now." Zhou Xun said softly, "Have you ever thought about what she is like now?"

"I don't know, in fact, it is very likely that she has..."

Xiao Lizi suddenly laughed. He scratched his head and said, "There are many rich peasants in Xiliang, right? Maybe she's married to a rich peasant family and has children now. That's pretty good too. In fact, I don’t want to see her again, as long as I know that she is doing well, that’s fine.”

Life is plain and dull, but it is also very good to live cleanly.

Zhou Xun stopped talking, and after a long time, he gave a soft "hmm".

The lights in the imperial study were turned off, and Zhou Xun also left with the emperor.Along the way, the emperor yelled that his waist was sore and his back hurt, and he muttered that he wanted his wife to rub it.Zhou Xun rubbed his forehead for him.

Little Lizi never knew that Zhou Xun didn't come to find the emperor.

He just came for him.

He didn't know that Xiao Wu had come to Zhou Xun that evening.Holding a list, he stammered to Zhou Xun that Mrs. Lu did not pick up trash.

The evidence is that most of the things she picked up were light and easy to carry, but did not appear to be valuable.And in the last seven days before she fell into a coma, she was always spinning around Revlon.

……

The rain is about to stop, Qing Ruo looks at the orchids by the window, feeling flustered for no reason.

When the maid asked her to place white or yellow orchids today, she paused, waved her hand and said, "White."

The maid knows that Qingruo likes orchids, so she will put a pot of orchids on the window sill every day regardless of the four seasons, autumn and winter.

Nothing out of the ordinary lately.

Every day, celebrities and dignitaries welcome and send off, and flowers are still cooked with brocade and fire.The war on the border did not affect the excitement of the capital, and she heard some politicians complained about the war between the emperor and the Northern Wei Dynasty, and felt that they should appease and make friends with each other—this was a good thing for her.

except...

The old woman who narrowly escaped.

For a day that she did not see that woman's death, she would not feel at ease.

It's just that there is some good news today. The guards guarding the Lu family have finally all withdrawn. Now that the capital is so busy, they don't have time to take care of trivial matters.And she finally found a chance to eliminate the first and last.

"Set it on fire and burn it all down," she ordered.

She only welcomed one guest this day—a poet who loved to listen to her playing the piano, and wrote countless poems praising her beauty—even though he already had a wife in his family.Every time she looked at him, she felt bored.

At dusk, she was alone in the wing room.She sat upright in the wing room, watching the twilight outside the window.On this day, the tea house in the distance was empty, and no one came.

But what she wants to see is not a tea house.

But far away.

The setting sun in the distance burned up, red and redder, as if the sun was about to fall, and it was like overturned cinnabar, destroying the entire drawing paper in an instant.

Qing Ruo then knew that the matter was done.

She looked at the place where the fire was happening, still maintaining her kneeling posture, but there was a knock on the door behind her.

The sound of knocking on the paper door.

No one should have come to see her that night, whether it was a guest or someone Lanhua was waiting for.

But someone came.

The paper door was pulled open, and a young man walked in outside the paper door.

Qing Ruo frowned, she said sharply: "How did you get up, you—"

Her voice froze.

The next person was born with a pair of slightly raised eyes, white skin, but black eyebrows and hair, like a faint ink painting.

With just one glance, she recognized his identity, and immediately her mind went blank.

She knows who he is.

Zhou Xun.

Hubu Shangshu, the lover of the emperor, the disciple of Shen Huanju, the commander of the Black Clothes Envoy, who appeared in Yanyunfang that day.

She heard the sound of her bones trembling, but the corners of her lips were still full of smiles: "Young Master Zhou, why are you here today?"

A young man in black sat beside her.

One of them was wearing an extremely colorful long dress, and the other was wearing an extremely dark black dress, but they were sitting opposite each other, with the falling sunset outside the window.

Qingruo's movements are still unhurried - or, she is trying her best to be unhurried.She poured the tea into the cup, handed it to Zhou Xun, and said, "Young master Zhou came to Revlon, but he was dressed in black. It's a bit..."

"There was supposed to be a funeral tonight, wasn't there?"

With a trembling of Qingruo's hand, the tea dripped on the edge of the table.

"The heavenly girl is Qingruo, the saint of the Red Lotus Sect, the spy of Xiliang, the most loyal spy of the prince of Xiliang, the helper of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the person who assassinated Lumu that day." Every time he uttered a word, his expression lightly It will be whiter.

But it was the last sentence that really turned her face pale.

"Or... Li Aruo, Li Atong's younger sister, Li Aruo, the chief servant next to Emperor Jingguo?"

The teacup fell to the ground.

"Now, you should know who is investigating you in Xiliang, right?"

Zhou Xun stood up and walked to the window sill step by step. He opened the curtain and looked at the place where the sun sank.

"The burning place today is not Aunt Lu's house, but the secret warehouse of the Red Lotus Sect." He said softly.

He heard trembling breathing from behind him.Then, he turned around, and behind the black clothes was a sunken huge sunset.

"I brought one thing."

A white paper flower landed on Zhou Xun's hand.Zhou Xun said: "This paper flower may land on a person's coffin today."

He held his hand, his slender fingers covered the paper flower.

"Do you hope that this person is you? Or...do you hope that Li Atong saw this coffin? He has been looking for you." Zhou Xun said softly.

He saw the shivering look of the celestial girl. This woman in a gorgeous dress seemed to be unable to support the weight of her clothes anymore, and fell down on the table.Her fingers seemed to be convulsed as she gripped the coffee table.

Zhou Xun leaned down to look at her.

"I once lived in the Imperial Prison for a month. In order to make me confess, the guards let me watch a skin-picking show. The head was crossed, and mercury was poured from it. The person was also bloody and was transported out. He whispered, "If you die, I will order someone to dress you in white mourning clothes, put paper flowers on your body, and carry them out. However, the clothes may be stained with your blood. very ugly."

"Li Atong told me that his younger sister is a clean little girl. They like to play together on the field ridge. His sister's feet are covered with mud, but in his eyes, she is a clean little girl with a smile. He I think, that little girl may have married someone in Xiliang and had a child." Zhou Xun said finally.

……

long silence.

After a long time, he finally heard Qingruo's voice, soft, very soft.

"...It turns out that I am now, in someone's memory, still a clean and innocent little girl." She said softly, "So there is another person in this world who thinks of me like this. "

Sometimes it doesn't take many words or many threats to convince a person, all you need is this one sentence.

Because they had too little, as long as there is a little something like a light source, it is enough for them to survive.

"What do you want to know?" Qing Ruo said, "Xiliang, Northern Wei Dynasty, Red Lotus Sect, First Prince, or anything else? I can tell you."

She raised her chin, and regained her previous proud look from that weak girl.She smiled sweetly and said: "Anyway, this is the end of the matter, so I won't have a chance to live, right? I heard the voices of the guards outside. This place has been guarded, right? If that's the case, it's better to be happy."

Zhou Xun sat across from her.Qing Ruo paused for a while, then said again: "There is one thing, I need to trouble Master Zhou."

"what's up."

"This is a trivial matter, but it should be easy for Mr. Zhou, right? Tell my brother, you haven't found Li Aruo, and I will never have anything to do with his sister."

Zhou Xun finally raised his eyes to look at her, and said, "Why?"

"It's enough for me to be clean in the eyes of one person in my life." She smiled.