I see the snow

"Are you going to keep spending time with me like this?"

In the deep night, demons whisper in people's ears.

Seven kills tempted over and over again: "If you continue like this, you will be too late. The people of Yanqi will soon cross the Chixia River, a merciful king, are you not afraid of becoming the subjugated king who is scolded by thousands of people in the history books?" ?……"

Shen Yan leaned over the table, covered in cold sweat, grasping the edge of the table with her hands, her forearm with bruised veins.

His gaze fell on the folded military newspaper not far away, panting heavily.

He didn't know why he had encountered such a thing, or in other words, he only found out that he had encountered such a thing today.

"I'm not a good king," Shen Yan gritted his teeth: "But... I will never hand over the great country of my ancestors to a monster like you...!"

"Hahaha, I'm a monster."

Seven kills laughed: "I'm a monster—but I'm the real you..."

His voice suddenly became quieter, and he seemed to be close to Shen Yan's ear, and whispered very softly: "The real you are such an evil, such a bastard...including those things you did to Chu Yuan: which one?" It's not from your heart, but you dare not do it?"

"I've shown it openly for you, but why do you pretend to be a gentleman?"

"..."

Shen Yan's eyes hurt from the sweat rolling down his forehead: Chu Yuan... yes, there is also Chu Yuan.

The person he cherished and relied on the most in the past, but where is he now...?

He hasn't seen him for the last time, how many times in his dreams he watched him jump and fall from the city wall, but he could only stare blankly, unable to do anything.That almost became the most inescapable nightmare for Shen Yan.

Now that he has left the capital of stars, should he be happy or sad?

"One day I live..."

Shen Yan gritted his teeth and said, because of the pain, his jaw and cheeks were clenched tightly, and he looked almost ferocious for a moment: "I won't let you succeed for a day—even if you are the king of subjugation, recorded in the annals of history and reviled Tens of thousands of years will not allow you to succeed!!"

Angry growls, deep moans, and incomparably arrogant laughter were mixed together, hidden behind heavy palace curtains.

The long night is as deep and heavy as ink, and it cannot be melted away.Only a gust of wind that happened to sneak in occasionally blows the curtain, blowing the light and gauze curtain together and down.

Dawn is still far away, and this place without a ray of light belongs to the devil.

……

The bright sunlight, the green vines climbing up the wall, and the quarreling voices that can no longer be noisy.

Yinzhichuan felt very familiar in a trance, and he returned to the backyard of his youth.

The elder brothers are fighting and fighting, arguing with each other, comparing hands, feet and marksmanship, making the whole courtyard uneasy.

Servants and maids passed by helplessly, and walked away from them as if hiding from a bully, looking at them with their necks hooked and smiling wryly.

"You acted like a fool first, you agreed not to hide or evade, just stand in place and defend, your feet are off the ground!"

"You know what! When and when did the young master say that he would not dodge? I mean, I will give you three moves at the beginning!"

"Brother—look at him!!"

Yin Zhisheng was caught in the middle, with a comforting smile on his face, looking at his two brothers in a dilemma.

"Hey--"

Only Yinzhichuan jumped down from the stump with a smile, holding a freshly picked sour fruit in his hand.As he walked, he lifted the corner of his clothes and wiped it casually, and he was about to open his mouth wide and chew it "crackling" in his mouth.

"Old Seven—"

When passing by under the eaves, a man with a solemn face, with some majesty and sternness, was standing in front of the house.He stopped him and asked, "Are you familiar with the new marksmanship you learned today?"

Yin Zhichuan froze, his back was frozen, and he didn't need to think about it, he was racing against time to think of some reason to get away with it.

The aged Zhen Guogong sighed and said to him:

"Come in with me."

Then Bian turned around and returned to the dark ancestral hall with a dark floor.

Yin Zhichuan was downcast, looking like a child who made a mistake and resigned himself to his fate, waiting for the imminent punishment.

He Zhang Pan didn't dare to follow behind his father too presumptuously, staring at the toes of his boots.

"What are you thinking?"

Closing the gate of the ancestral hall, the white sunshine at noon was cut off from the outside.

The ancestral hall was very quiet, and there was an indescribably depressing atmosphere.Yinzhichuan looked at the ancestor spirit tablets that surrounded him and stared silently at him, and he was a little out of breath.

His father was always very strict, and there was a very deep "Chuan" line between his eyebrows, which made him always give people a great sense of prestige when he was not smiling.

Even Yin Zhichuan didn't dare to be too arrogant in front of his father.

"Er...not yet."

The sound of Yinzhichuan is like mosquitoes and flies.

He knew what his father was talking about—it was about the heavy wooden box he had accidentally opened.

Inside the wooden box was a heavy silver-washed gun, which glowed faintly in the dark, and Yin Zhichuan was so frightened that he threw it on the ground.

But what opening the box itself means, Yinzhichuan still doesn't know.

"This is your destiny."

Duke Zhen stared at his son, the pressure in his eyes made Yin Zhichuan lower his head, and he didn't dare to look at him at all.After a long time, he heard his father say: "You are the one chosen by the soldiers of the world...then, you must take up this responsibility."

——When only you can do something, it becomes a mission.

But Yinzhichuan's neck is stuck, and the corners of his clothes are still stained with a few dead branches and leaves that he rubbed against while climbing trees to pick fruits. Judging by his appearance, he is probably still thinking about where to go to shoot a slingshot later. .

Such a picture is full of "toughness" from beginning to end, no one who looks at it will be able to regard him as the best person to entrust the safety of his family and country.

But why... such a playful, rebellious young son has become the person finally chosen by the silver spear for thousands of years? ...

Duke Zhen was silent for a long time, and after a long time, he seemed not to know how to solve his "rebellious son" problem, so he could only let out a long sigh.

"Don't go out and play around."

Lord Zhen Guo ordered: "It's good to live in meditation in the meditation room! When the marksmanship can pass a hundred moves with me, go out and mess around!"

"……Yes."

Yin Zhichuan elongated his voice, full of satisfaction and displeasure, but he couldn't escape.

He watched the figure of his father leaving, and began to think about what to do in this boring place alone for a while.

But with the gradually blurred figure of Lord Zhen Guo and the closing of the door bit by bit, he suddenly found that he was the only one left in the darkness.

The dream suddenly came to an end, and all the lights, shadows and noises disappeared suddenly: Yinzhichuan stood alone in the darkness, one was his childhood self; the other was his tall and straight self, they stood side by side, Everyone is far away from them. There is nothing around them. There is nothing.

All he could see with his eyes was the Silver Spear not far away that was still glowing with gleaming light.

It seemed to be calling him silently.

"Come on... pick up the gun and use it to become a hero to the world."

But Yin Zhichuan was unmoved, he just looked at the faint white light in silence, as if even if Sheng Yang died before his eyes, he would not walk over there.

"cough……"

In the silent night, the candlelight flickered very lightly.

Yin Zhichuan frowned, coughed softly, and woke up from the dream.

Different from the sunny noon in the dream, Sheng Yang was already in the middle of winter at this time.The night was dry and bitterly cold, and braziers were lit in the room.

The charcoal burned red in the brazier, and then disappeared little by little, turning into white ashes.

Yin Zhichuan was sweating all over from sleep, he sat on the bed hugged by the quilt, and was in a daze for a while, thinking about the voice and appearance of his long-lost friend in his dream.Then he came back to his senses, looked at his sweaty underwear, and wondered if he wanted to change into a dry one.

"Who?"

However, suddenly, he raised his head vigilantly, looked out the door and asked.

There was a slight noise outside the room, and a vague figure was reflected on the window paper, as if passing by outside the room, and seemed to be hesitating a little whether to make a sound.

After a while of silence, Xi Huai replied, "It's me."

He was originally standing behind the side, in a place where Yinzhichuan could not see, but he walked out of the shadows after he finished his answer.

He is dressed in white clothes better than snow, holding a cat in his arms, his brows are pale and plain——

Reflecting the orange candlelight inside the house and the white snow outside, it shows a sense of contradiction mixed with softness and coldness at the same time.

"Why are you here."

Yin Zhichuan withdrew his gaze, his back subconsciously relaxed, his vigilance disappeared, and he asked with downcast eyes.

"Little Tomato got lost at night, I'll come out to look for it."

Xi Huai replied.

——It’s true, but there are some other meanings that I didn’t say.

For example, why did he not go back immediately when he found Little Tomato, but instead stayed for so long in such a cold and snowy night.

Xi Huai looked at Yinzhichuan hesitantly, he couldn't describe to him that when he passed by just now, he saw the candles burning in Yinzhichuan's house, but there was no movement.

He almost... was about to open the door and go in, to make sure he was alright.

It's just that after waiting outside the door for too long, when he was finally about to make up his mind, Yin Zhichuan woke up again by himself.

"what happened?"

Probably the two of them had really come to a relatively silent situation, Yin Zhichuan saw Xi Huai just standing outside the door, neither leaving nor speaking, quite surprised, he raised his head and looked at Xi Huai again , and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"..."

Xihuai blinked her dark blue eyelashes and shook her head: "It's nothing."

Holding the cat in his arms, he passed by Yinzhichuan's door and gradually walked away.

Yin Zhichuan looked at his back, the room was burning with warm charcoal fire.There is a faint fragrance floating, and the snow outside is clear.The moonlight and the night complement each other, and the white light flows slowly on the snow.

A snowy night in midwinter.

The last side before farewell.

In fact, both Yinzhichuan and Xihuai felt a bit of remorse when they recalled later——

Because they had so many opportunities to explain their misunderstanding to each other and restore everything.But...but.

I miss it time and time again.

In the winter of Shengyang's last year, the biggest snowfall ever fell in the capital of Hoshino.

The cotton-like snowflakes fluttered for four days and four nights, dyeing everything on the roof and the ground pure white—the so-called auspicious snow heralds a good year, which is usually a good omen.

But looking at the endless snow, the people in Shengyang felt an ominous feeling in their hearts:

Such a heavy snow, it seems that heaven and earth are burying an old dynasty that is about to perish.

All the people were panicked, watching the dawn with fear; all the high-ranking officials were very busy, asking if they could escape to Liang Cheng and other countries; The grave bearer of the huge curtain call.

"Dad."

Standing under the high wall in the courtyard, Xi Huai stared at the thick snow on the roof, and asked in his heart: "Did you... have you ever thought that Sheng Yang would come to this point and perish like this?"

But the person who could give him the answer and relieve all the confusion in his heart has long been buried in the ground, and all his close relatives are gone.

Xi Huai lowered his eyes mockingly, hugged the cat, and smiled.

Want to go?

He looked at the hairy tip of the little tomato in his arms, and thought wistfully.

In this mansion, no one wants him to stay.Even Yin Zhichuan... made a vow with him that he would never meet again in the next life.

Xi Huai looked up at the starry sky in the north in silence for a long time, and for the first time faced the same daze and bewilderment as when he stepped out of the blue waters.

If you don't see her in the next life... then at least in this life, don't leave any debts.

For a long time, he thought.

Xi Huai put down the little tomato, took a deep breath, and walked slowly outside the door.

This time, he didn't look back.

On the second day, when Yinzhichuan heard the report, Xihuai disappeared from Yinfu.

Yin Zhichuan didn't want to admit that he didn't want to let Xi Huai go at first because he couldn't let him go in the end.

With so many reasons, why Xi Huai took away the information from the mansion, and it will cause trouble for everyone in the mansion... Only he knows how grand the words are.

Now that Sheng Yang is about to perish, and staying in the Zhen Guogong's mansion will risk his life, Yin Zhichuan has already released the surveillance of Xi Huai.Even if Xi Huai doesn't leave by himself, Yin Zhichuan will make arrangements and ask Ji Wuhen to take him away as a last resort.

It's just that after admitting being deceived like that, still worrying about one person, unable to give up, is really too begging in a relationship.It made Yin Zhichuan unable to face it or admit it, so he continued to deceive himself and others.

When he heard that Xi Huai had left, he felt an indescribable feeling of relief:

Finally, I don't have to lie to myself anymore.

I don't have to suffer like that anymore... I love someone deeply, but I can only stand where I am, with a pitiful and ridiculous face, pretending that I don't care.

Father, you calculated that hexagram at the beginning, it was really accurate...

Yinzhichuan thought, it turned out that the robbing he had to endure at the age of 23 was really such a pain.

It's just that that night, he stood in front of the door, the snow falling all over the courtyard was cold and silent, he stood there for a long time, maybe... he also wanted to say goodbye to me, right?

Yin Zhichuan bent his lips and smiled, giving himself a rather self-comforting thought.

As the bleak winter wind picked up, he stood under the eaves, looking at the mansion that was getting dilapidated day by day, and stood silently for a long time.

When he came back to his senses, the wooden fence in his hand had left deep finger marks.

... No matter how much you don't want to admit it, you can't lie to yourself after all.Xi Huai left, but Yin Zhichuan was still in pain and sadness.

Ji Wuhen leaned on the pillar in the corridor behind his friend, watching his back from a distance.

Yin Zhichuan's shoulders were trembling uncontrollably, and he didn't make a sound, but Ji Wuhen knew that tears must be streaming down his face.

There is the most stupid person in this world, who knows that he is being betrayed and hurt, but still can't let go of his heartbeat.

... There are also the most rational and intelligent people who say that I am only stupid in this life, let you deceive and calculate, and never meet again next time.

He finally "drives" Xi Huai away with the last trace of pitiful decency and ruthlessness.

But why did the grief and pain, which had been suppressed for a whole month, burst out in such a turbulent and uncontrollable way?

"Where is the flower tree?"

But quite surprisingly, at the same time, Xi Huai was actually stepping into an inn.

The appearance of the inn looked dilapidated and inconspicuous.But for some reason, there were at least fifty elite assassins silently guarding the door.

Xi Huai put on a black cloak, covering most of his cheeks, as if he didn't see anything, he walked inside.

Until it was suddenly stopped by a scabbard coming across.

"how?"

The man in white was neither surprised nor afraid, raised his eyes lightly, and even smiled with interest.

He stared coldly at Leng Sichun standing in front of him, and said in a cold voice, "Huacishu doesn't want to see me?... Unless, he doesn't want to find 'that person' anymore?"

"Let him in."

Before the words fell, as expected, there was a dull voice from the depths of the shadows in the room, but it was enough to make all the assassins in a radius of ten miles bow their heads.

Leng Sichun's hand holding the sword paused slightly.

Huacishu twisted the wheelchair and turned around, followed by the silent black-clothed assassin.

He pushed Huacishu's wheelchair forward slowly, out of the shadows.

So Xihuai saw Huacishu's face clearly.He smiled lightly and asked:

"Long time no see, I didn't expect to see you today."

"...But, since you dared to come to me, you must have obtained some reliable news, right? So what do you want to exchange for it?...Let me guess."

"—Benimaru?"

"No."

However, for the first time, Xi Huai silently denied it.

He raised his eyes and looked directly at the tree of flowers, and said word by word in the surprised eyes of everyone:

"I will be used by you to assassinate Yinzhichuan, the antidote of the dream grass."

……

Yin Zhichuan met a very interesting kid.

After Xi Huai left, he gradually developed a hobby of wandering around the yard.

Tired of shopping, I jumped to the roof and drank by the moonlight.

The mansion was already empty, and the few servants who were unwilling to leave were driven away by Yinzhichuan due to the increasingly dangerous situation in the capital of the stars.

Looking down from the ridge of the roof and looking at the empty courtyard, sometimes there will be a sense of vicissitudes that have passed a hundred years.

"If there is anything...you can find me in Feishu."

When Ji Wuhen left, she silently said this to Yinzhichuan.

He probably still couldn't worry about the dream grass in Yin Zhichuan's body, and always felt that there was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn't reach the point of nowhere.But Yin Zhichuan knew in his heart that, compared to having no dream grass and no antidote, what was more frightening was that his mind had no medicine or stone to heal.

He has been living in a daze like a trapped beast for a long time, and finally met someone, thinking that he is also a traitor in this world just like himself, and happily approached him, only to realize that it was a scam about revenge.

Yin Zhichuan was really tired and exhausted, and he had no hope of living this life anymore.

"Hey, is there no one here?"

One day, in the evening, a child came. He looked up at the Yinzhi River on the roof and asked him, "Then let me sit with you."

Yinzhichuan looked down, and it turned out to be a beggar dressed in rags.

The child was wrapped in a dirty robe, with bare feet, holding a few shriveled yams in his arms that he dug out from some stinky ditch.

Yin Zhichuan glanced at him casually, and didn't want to answer, but he didn't drive him away either.

The little beggar curled up in the corner of his mansion, with his red feet curled up from the cold, he came to rest and shelter from the wind every day, and ate the few rotten yams he had picked up.

But Yinzhichuan gradually discovered that this child was very strange:

He is not like other people in the capital of the stars, who either flock to the government of Zhenguo and beg Yinzhichuan to resist Yan Qi when they meet; Lan's deserter.

He doesn't seem to know where he lives in the corner, he has no likes or dislikes, he comes every evening, leaves at dawn, falls asleep when he arrives, and rarely talks to the Yinzhi River on the roof.

Occasionally, he talked enthusiastically, and it was also about how many more moldy buns he begged for today.

"Where are you from?"

One day, Yin Zhichuan couldn't help asking.

He was finally aroused by this child, and he couldn't tell what it was, but Yinzhichuan, who hadn't talked to anyone for a long time, suddenly had a desire to communicate with others.

"Yaozhuang."

The beggar didn't turn his head, but concentrated on nibbling on his dry and hard taro, and replied.

Yaozhuang is a small village near the capital of the stars. Yinzhichuan felt a little surprised and asked in surprise:

"Then why did you come here?"

You must know that although the capital of Hoshino is a prosperous royal capital, it is actually not very friendly to outsiders.There are many castles and pavilions here, but there is also a lot of money.

Expensive supplies often discourage many foreigners.

If you didn't have a little savings, or you came to the capital for speculation, blindly rushing into the capital of the stars would only turn young lives into dead bones and become one in a thousandth of the nutrients that nourish this prosperous royal city.

"There is no reason."

But the little beggar replied: "In the early years of flooding, the land at home was destroyed, and my parents starved to death. I came to the city to beg for food. I couldn't get anything to eat in Yaozhuang."

Yinzhichuan was momentarily at a loss for words, and looked at him silently.

"Then how do you know that you can get something in Hoshino City?"

After a while, he replied, "You know, if you come here, you might as well go to a farther and smaller town, where you might find someone to teach you a craft, and then you can live by that craft."

"But people in our village say that the capital city is good."

However, the little beggar replied naively: "They say there is a big house here, a lady from a famous family who smells so fragrant, and a carriage full of gems on the body... I wanted to take a look, so I came here."

Yin Zhichuan was dumbfounded for a moment, stared at by the black and white eyes, he didn't know what to say.

"Then you..." After a long time, he seemed to find his voice: "Are you disappointed now?"

"This place... is actually not as good as you imagined."

"Yes, it's not as good as I thought it would be here."

The little beggar replied bluntly: "The people here are very bad. Don't let me stop and rest in front of their gates - it is not auspicious. As long as you are willing, you are a good person. And I can't speak official Chinese, and my accent is Yao Zhuang's accent, even when I was begging with others at first, I would be beaten... They told me to go back to my hometown..."

The little beggar stretched out his fingers and counted them all seriously.

Yin Zhichuan looked at him, never knew that a person could remember his grievance and humiliation with such a serious and calm expression.

There is a hint of humor in the bitterness.

"And then what?"

Yin Zhichuan asked, "Then why do you still stay in the Starfield Capital?"

"Because I can stay here."

The little beggar said that he was looking at Yinzhichuan seriously, with no joke on his face, and said to Yinzhichuan, "I'm not talking about being a beggar...but that one day , I could buy a house here and stay here like the rest of you."

"Well—"

He stretched out his hand towards Yin Zhichuan, took out a small cloth bag from his tattered clothes, shook it gently, and could hear the sound of copper coins colliding inside.

The little beggar smiled sweetly and said longingly, "I already have two hundred copper coins, and I will have three hundred coins when I make another deposit. When the next spring comes, I will buy ten packs of Mingsheng Lan I am not bragging, I am very good at growing flowers. When I was a child in the village, no one grew as well as the flowers I planted... In this way, I can earn at least one piece of broken flowers by selling the flowers from these seeds. Silver, I'll take these scraps of silver and buy seeds... In less than three years, I'll be able to buy a house here and stay!"

Yin Zhichuan looked at the child's eyes that seemed to be shining with stars, flashing and flashing, and smiled for a long time.

"Innocent."

he said softly. "This place is about to become a hell on earth..." Yinzhichuan stared at the distant stars in the distance, and spit out words slowly and indifferently: "Hurry up and escape... Go back to the countryside and find a deep mountain and wild forest to hide. When it's all over, go back to town..."

And at that time, maybe even the country of Sheng Yang was no longer there.

"why."

Faced with Yin Zhichuan's rare sincere advice, the little beggar opened his eyes wide, with an expression of disbelief, and asked, "Aren't you from the general's mansion?"

He pointed to the gate below Yinzhi River with a plaque hanging on it, and said, "How can you say such alarmist and irrelevant things?"

"..."

Yinzhichuan was silent for a moment, as if he thought it was very interesting, he replied: "I'm just a servant in the mansion. When our major general heard that there was going to be a war, he had already led people away early—"

"That's not OK."

The little beggar said seriously: "You don't know, a notice has been posted at the gate of the city, if anyone in the city talks about false rumors to shake the hearts of the people, they will all be punished as treason and sent to hell...! Don't talk nonsense again, but this time, I won't report on you either."

"..."

Yin Zhichuan didn't know what feeling he was feeling in his heart, he was silent for a long time, then he suddenly smiled, twirling his fingers lightly, and said to himself, "Treason... Really, what a crime of treason, all-encompassing and all-encompassing... ...!"

"Besides, we, Sheng Yang, are so powerful, how could we be defeated by their little Yanqi people?"

Under the wall, the little beggar was still murmuring: "Even after 100 years, 1000 years...we, Sheng Yang, are still the masters of Zhonglu...!"

The stars are flickering lonely, this world, this dynasty, is peaceful.