treacherous world

This time he caught He Zheng and Da Bing and got a lot of clues.

What made Zhan Zhao happiest and most worried was that he finally learned of Zhan Hao's whereabouts. He asked Da and all the news about Zhan Hao carefully. There was nothing he could do.Zhan Zhao began to think about going to Tubo to find him.

Bao Zheng was busy trying He Zheng's case, the cat was said to be arriving today, and everyone was anxiously waiting.

Before noon, Zhan Zhao, who had been drawing bamboo slips in the yard for a long time, yawned and rubbed his sore neck, "I'm so sleepy, I'm really not suitable for doing this."

The fourth son was helping to roll the bamboo slips, his hands were sore from rolling, "Meow, it's so boring."

"I'm bored too." Zhan Zhao said helplessly, "But everyone can't see the characters on the bamboo slips, so I have to trace them sooner or later, but unfortunately I can't understand the characters after tracing them."

"This bamboo slip is so dirty, was it buried in the ground before?" The fourth son touched the rough surface of the bamboo slip.

"Maybe it is." Zhan Zhao also took advantage of the situation and touched it, "Why didn't it rot when it was buried in the ground?"

"A lot of characters are repeated!" The fourth son took a few scrolls that had already been traced and read them.

"I found out too." Zhan Zhao nodded earnestly, "Writing and writing, I found that some words appeared many times."

"Could it be Zhihu Zheye?" The fourth son guessed the symbols, and at this moment, something floated down melodiously and landed on the bamboo slips—it was a beautiful white plum blossom.

Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand to pick up the white plum blossom, the flower was very delicate with double petals, somehow he thought of that person.

The fourth son raised his face, "Why did it float in? There are no plum blossoms nearby."

Zhan Zhao raised the corner of his mouth slightly, and reached out to touch the head of Xiaosi, "Is it time to eat? Xiao Liang may have finished practicing."

"That's right!" The fourth son jumped down, "I'm going to find Xiao Liangzi for dinner, and you're going to eat too, Miaomiao!"

Zhan Zhao has been in a bad mood ever since he heard about Zhan Hao, the fourth son was a little worried about him and asked him to eat.

"En." Zhan Zhao nodded, and the fourth son ran away with rock-paper-scissors.

Zhan Zhao stared at the plum blossom on his palm in a daze, and smiled while resting his chin on one hand.

At this time, someone asked, "Are you free this afternoon?"

The corner of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched again, and he gently rolled up the scroll in his hand, "I have something to do."

"Things never get done, right?"

"Then if you don't do anything, what are you going to do?"

"For example, there is a hot spring on the mountain here, do you know?"

"Hot springs are not uncommon, there are also hot springs in the empty island."

"This hot spring is in a place called Baimei Villa, have you heard of it?"

"Oh?"

"It's snowing on the mountain, isn't it interesting?"

"Ah."

"There is also white plum wine, do you want to drink?"

Zhan Zhao raised his face, and saw a man in white sitting on the wall of the courtyard unrestrainedly, and asked him against the bright sunlight, "Soak in the hot spring under the white plum tree and drink white plum wine, shall we go together?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, put the scroll away and locked it in the warehouse, and went out with Bai Yutang.

"Everyone is busy, we have no conscience for running out like this." When Zhan Zhao left He Zheng's residence, he saw a large number of people coming in and out very busy.

"One hour is enough to soak in a hot spring, drink a glass of wine and have a meal." Bai Yutang walked forward slowly with a silver knife behind his back, "Don't always do things, but rest."

Zhan Zhao walked shoulder to shoulder with him on the streets of Chengdu Mansion.

Although the news that He Zheng was brought to justice had already been reported, the people on the street didn't react too violently. Instead, there were smiles on every face, which showed that there was a lot of dissatisfaction with him.

Zhan Zhao raised his face to look at the sky, it had been gloomy before, but today it was cleared up, the blue sky has not been seen for a long time, it is very kind, and he began to miss Kaifeng's always clear sky.

"The result of only focusing on one thing is that you can't see many other important things." Zhan Zhao suddenly said, and said in a low voice, "I remember when I was 16 years old, I was injured once and went back to my hometown to recuperate. At that time, my father My mother is not here, and the old housekeeper has gone home, and it is my eldest brother who is taking care of me. He has to settle accounts, and he has to take care of the business, and he seems to be wandering around me every day."

Bai Yutang walked quietly beside him without interrupting, just listening to him talk about some past events in detail.It is said that people who are really nostalgic will only think about the past in the dead of night, and they are not willing to talk about it to others, because the past means that they cannot go back, so speaking of it is often sad... just like the present .

"I was lying on the rattan couch in the courtyard of the mansion, and my eldest brother was sitting at the stone table to settle accounts. After a while, he would raise his face to look at the sky, sometimes even for half an hour, just like that in a daze."

"Why?" Bai Yutang didn't understand.

"He always said that he can't go to a very far place, but every time he sees the sky far away, he feels like he has gone far, far away..." Zhan Zhao said, sighing softly, " I didn't think much about it at the time, but when I think about it now, when he said that he was far, far away, the look in his eyes seemed to tell me that one day he would go far, far away, and maybe he would never come back."

Bai Yutang raised his face and looked at the sky, "Perhaps, there is a reason why he is so indifferent to everyone."

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao turned to look at him.

"Anyway, I have to leave sooner or later, so why get too close to people?" Bai Yutang could already smell the faint scent of white plums blowing down with the mountain breeze, "I seem to understand this feeling."

"Yeah, you are usually very cold to people, why?" Zhan Zhao asked him very interestedly.

Bai Yutang shrugged, "Everyone thinks differently. Some people may feel that it is not easy to live in this world. They should find some like-minded people to benefit from it. This life will not be wasted. But some people think that it is only a lifetime. It's just that there are so many people coming and going, the more nostalgia there is, the less free and easy it is, it's better to be free."

"Then which one are you?" Zhan Zhao leaned closer to him, reaching out to pick off a plum blossom petal stuck in his hair.

"It doesn't matter which one it is." Bai Yutang pointed to the huge mountain gate in front of him and the plaque that said "Baimei Mountain Villa", "No one can walk all the way alone. In his life, there will always be one or two people The exception, the one he wanted to keep."

Zhan Zhao smiled, passing through the high mountain gate, white plum blossoms appeared in front of his eyes.

"Why so many white plums?"

"This is a strange person, that person is called Xue Baimei." Bai Yutang replied, "I have a friend who has a lot of money, but unfortunately his health is not good. The doctor said that he would die before he was 20 years old. He started breeding when he was 16 years old. Plum, planted for four years, died just after the age of 20, leaving behind this garden of ten thousand plums."

Zhan Zhao felt that this person was strange, "There are still four years to live, why don't you do something else instead of planting plum blossoms here?"

Bai Yutang shrugged slightly, "I asked him this question before."

"What's the point?"

"He only said that a lot of things don't have results after doing them, and they don't understand immediately. Let's look at it after many years." Bai Yutang said and gently pulled Zhan Zhao, "It's cold up there, it's freezing, be careful Slip!"

"En." Zhan Zhao's footsteps were a little lighter. At this time, the ice and snow in the middle of the mountain and the plum blossoms in the middle of the mountain, the plum blossoms fell like snow, the white snow was not bleak, but very beautiful, and there was a sense of inexplicable excitement.

"Without his inexplicable, there would be no plum grove, right? Sometimes people should be a little silly, or persistent, not many people understand." Zhan Zhao nodded lightly, and saw Bai Yutang smiled gratifiedly, and laughed too, shaking his head secretly, this rat has good intentions.

Going up for a while, the snow will melt, and you can already feel the heat of the hot spring.

"It's really warm." When Zhan Zhao changed his clothes, he saw that Bai Yutang had dug out a jar of wine from under a plum tree.

The two soaked in the hot spring, admiring the plum blossoms with a wine dish in their hands.

The fallen petals floated on the elegant wine saucer, Zhan Zhao understood why Bai Yutang drank from a wine saucer instead of a wine glass, and also knew why this wine was called Baimeijiu.The falling plums float on the wine, adding some flavor of falling plums to the fragrance of the wine... The wine becomes more intoxicating as the scenery changes.

"Your elder brother was just persistent once, or acted foolishly. Not everyone can control it." Bai Yutang put down his glass, and turned to look at Zhan Zhao.His eyes fell on the side of his face through the dense water vapor, and he stretched out his hand to touch it lightly, as if to comfort him, "It's like my friend risked his life to plant plum blossoms, the ending will not be known until the end."

Zhan Zhao lightly pressed the back of his hand, and shook his head helplessly, "You...don't feel tired, I thought you were up late at night, why did you go, it turned out that you were obsessed with being stupid."

Bai Yutang was slightly taken aback.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the valley in front of him, "We passed that valley a few days ago, and we didn't see so many plum blossoms at all."

"Ahem." Bai Yutang coughed dryly twice, "Do plum blossoms bloom so fast!"

"Pretend I don't know. These plum blossoms were obviously shipped from somewhere else. You borrowed three thousand from Zhao Pu last night to help Zhao's army. It snowed on the mountain this morning." Zhan Zhao asked him with a smile, "It is said that there is a village in Chengdu Prefecture. It's called Plum Village, and it specializes in plum trees, how much did you buy to make this Baimei Villa?"

Bai Yutang was exposed, so he had no choice but to tell the truth, "Five thousand trees."

"How much money did it cost?!" Zhan Zhao pretended to turn his face.

Bai Yutang touched his cheek embarrassingly, "Money is not a problem..."

"Who said that?" Zhan Zhao glared at him, sank into the water, the warm spring water was up to his chin, and looked at Bai Yutang with his eyes, "How much money will it cost?"

Bai Yutang also sank a little, "1 taels."

"1 taels?!" Zhan Zhao stared at him viciously, "Prodigal son!"

"This villa can always get people to come, it's not a waste..."

Zhan Zhao smiled and shook his head, "You worked so hard to create this beautiful scenery, and you made up a story about your friend, what do you want to say to me?"

Bai Yutang looked at him, leaned into his ear, and whispered, "I want to make you happy, and this is not a lie."

"Ok?"

"I used to live in the valley with my master. There are many crabapple trees on both sides of the mountain every year. But compared to crabapple flowers blooming in spring and covering the mountains and plains red, I prefer white plums blooming in winter and covering the mountains and plains in white."

Zhan Zhao took a deep breath, "It's really worth it. The longer the plum blossoms grow, the better. We can come again."

"Then are you relieved?" Bai Yutang helped him gently stroke the black hair on his shoulders behind his ears, "We agreed when we got married that we will be happy in the future. I'm not unhappy like you. For whom, even your elder brother can't do it."

While speaking, a gust of mountain wind passed by, and the plum blossoms all over the sky were swept away by the wind and flew like heavy snow.

"The 1 taels are worth it, Yutang." Zhan Zhao looked at the magnificent scene with a hearty smile, and drank all the wine in the wine dish.

Bai Yutang went over with the bracelet, gently supported his shoulder, and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you angry?"

"Why are you angry?"

"Then when did you see the flaw?" Bai Yutang finally couldn't help asking, thinking that he had done a perfect job, why is this cat so shrewd.

"The words Baimei Villa are clearly your mouse body!" Zhan Zhao moved closer, wrapped his arms around his neck, and poked his shoulder lightly with his fingers, "Also, who would choose such a vulgar name as Xue Baimei?" , just you lazy person."

Bai Yutang laughed, closed his eyes and kissed him lightly on the top of his hair, "Cat."

"Ok?"

"When you grow old, you have to come together."

"Well, definitely."

"That's a deal."

"Yutang."

"Ok?"

"No... just want to call."

When everyone came back to see Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang in the afternoon, they saw that they looked good, especially Zhan Zhao.After interrogating Da Bing last night, Zhan Zhao was out of his mind, frowning and absent-minded, but now it seems that his condition is still as good as before.Bao Zheng smiled reassuringly, Bai Yutang did abide by the agreement he had made with Yin Hou when he visited the hall that day, no matter what, he must ensure that Zhan Zhao is happy.

Gongsun patted the fourth son who was taking a nap, and asked Zhao Pu in a low voice, "Bai Yutang has a way."

Zhao Pu laughed dryly, but he had heard from some of the guards that Bai Yutang really put his heart into it, so after thinking about it, he leaned over and asked Gongsun, "Dear, what flowers do you like?"

Gongsun narrowed his eyes, "Cordyceps or something..."

The corner of Zhao Pu's mouth twitched, "What about it? Choose something else."

"Ganoderma or something."

Zhao Pu's right eyelid started to twitch again.

"Ginseng?"

"Flowers!" Zhao Pu looked at the sky, his bookworm is just a medicine box, not cute at all!

Gongsun frowned and thought for a while, then replied with sparkling eyes, "Ice Mountain Snow Lotus!"

Zhao Pu rubbed his forehead, curled his lips, "Forget it, I'll give you a prickly pear ball."

"What?" Gongsun didn't understand.

"No." Zhao Pu immediately put on a smiling face and pinched Gongsun's cheek lightly, "Say you have taste!"

"That's right." Gongsun Ke continued to pat the fourth son, who would still move from time to time when he was sleeping. Gongsun smiled and pointed to Zhao Pu, "It's long!"

Zhao Pu couldn't help laughing, got up, and asked Zhe Ying in a low voice, "Under what circumstances can I get a mountain of iceberg snow lotus?"

Zhe Ying frowned and looked at him for a long time, "Marshal, it is more practical to make a mountain of leek flowers."

Zhao Pu narrowed his eyes.

Zhe Ying hurriedly shut up, "I'll go to Zi Ying to study it..."

When everyone was seated in the courtyard, Pang Yu happily ran in, "My father is here."

"So fast?" Bao Zheng was also a little surprised.

"The things have arrived." At the same time, Bao Yanjin said, "The ones from Tubo have been detained, and they have just arrived at the door!"

Everyone exchanged glances with each other. Zhao Pu asked someone to quickly pull in the legendary Five-Life Cat, a magical weapon that can "see death" at a glance.

When Taishi Pang's sedan chair stopped at the gate of He Zheng's mansion, he saw people carrying a box in.

He was still puzzled, and followed into the house. It had been a long time since he had seen Pang Yu and everyone in the Kaifeng Mansion, especially since he hadn't argued with Bao Heizi for several days. Where is the old boy?"

As soon as I arrived in the yard, I saw the yard full of things.

A large box wrapped in black cloth, shaped like a coffin.

It was a large carriage with a lock, and there were some files on the table. It was strange that it was not Gongsun who did the paperwork this time, but Zhan Zhao with the pen.

In addition, everyone was looking at the box that had just been moved in in the middle of the yard, and not many people paid attention to him.

Puzzled, Pang Ji came to Bao Zheng's side, "Hey, Heizi, what are you bothering about? After capturing He Zheng, why don't you send him back to Kaifeng? The emperor is worried."

Bao Zheng signaled him not to rush, Zhao Pu first ordered, "Open the box!"

The shadow guards pried open the box and pulled out a statue of a cat from inside.It is smaller than everyone imagined, but the shape of the cat is lifelike.

A rather robust mud cat, bigger than a normal house cat, more like a leopard in shape.There is a leather cover over the eyes, which is nailed very tightly. After the leather dries, it will automatically tighten, and it is tightly wrapped around the cat's eyes. The cat may not be able to open its eyes.Behind the cat, there were indeed five tails, evenly distributed, but each tail was of different height and shape.

"Yo, an antique?" Grand Master Pang came up curiously to take a closer look, "This is like a craftsmanship from before the Qin and Han Dynasties. This treasure is priceless, Hei Zi."

Everyone knows that Taishi Pang has a lot of research on antique treasures, before the Qin and Han Dynasties?

"Is it that long?" Everyone asked him.

"It's still five tails!" Grand Master Pang rubbed his chin in a daze, "Is there someone else who makes such an unlucky thing? Could it be dug out from a grave?"

Bao Zheng looked at Pang Ji in surprise, "Do you know its origin? What kind of cat is it?"

Pang Ji was also a little dazed when he saw the crowd suddenly swipe and look at him. After a while, he said, "Cat? This shape is clearly not a cat."

"What is that?" Bai Yutang didn't understand.

"This is a lynx cat!" Grand Master Pang looked at Bai Yutang amusedly, "Are you stupid for raising a cat? You can't tell the difference between a cat and a lynx?!"

Bai Yutang was taken aback, Master Bao was also taken aback, and everyone stared at the mud cat again—indeed!This cat has a big head and a ring neck. It is clearly a lynx.

"The lynx is mostly born in high and cold places, and it is also a kind of evil beast, which is very unlucky." Bao Zheng ordered people to put the cat back into the box, ready to go back and study it again.

After hearing the general case, Grand Master Pang became interested in the golden coffin again, "Is this also a treasure? Old Bao, He Zheng has been greedy a lot, right?"

"Yes, you have to take it as a warning!" Bao Zheng replied, raising his hand to wipe his neck, "Otherwise the head will be lost!"

Pang Ji shrank his neck in shock.

Everyone lifted the coffin down, opened the black wrapping cloth, and saw that the patterns on the golden coffin turned out to be a picture scroll with content.

The painting depicts the battle of soldiers and horses from two sides, one with only a shield in his hand and the other with a weapon in his hand.

"It's interesting, one side is defending, and the other is attacking." Zhao Pu squatted in front of the coffin and looked at it, stretching out his fingers, "Look, the person holding the shield has a lynx face, but no tail, and the person holding the weapon is behind him. They all have five tails, but their heads look like normal people!"

Everyone was a little puzzled, which era was this battle scene, and even which dynasty did the weird painting style come from?

Pang Yu suggested, "Open the coffin and take a look?"

Everyone looked at Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng nodded slightly, and Ziying and Zheying went to open the coffin.

Because it is a golden coffin, the coffin lid is not nailed, but it is very difficult to open because of the tight seams. It took a long time for everyone to finally open it.With a creaking sound, the gleaming golden coffin lid opened.

Everyone looked inside...they frowned in surprise—it turns out that the golden coffin is not empty!