I see the snow

The fire in the capital of Hoshino burned for three days and three nights.

Countless fresh lives were reduced to dry bones in the flames of war. Because of Yin Zhichuan's joining, the battle between Sheng Yang and Yan Qi fell into a stalemate for a while.

In the middle of the night that night, as the strongest assassination force in Zhonglu, Shangjing also joined them.

Countless lives and bodies fell in the dark night, passing away silently.The ancient and prosperous royal capital ushered in the three most bloody days in history.

"Escape... run away!"

The once prosperous and majestic Jinghua Palace also fell into chaos, and the palace people rushed to escape.Individuals who are greedy are still searching for property in the empty palaces.

Shen Yan, with disheveled hair, sat slumped in the silent gilt palace, but with a crazy and struggling smile on his face.

"You are about to become the king of subjugation...you are about to become the king of subjugation!"

Qisha was roaring: "Let me go!!"

"Do not……"

However, Shen Yan pressed his right hand tightly, panting with all his might: "Ha...what's the matter of being scolded by the history books, and what's the matter of leaving a bad reputation for thousands of years...!? Don't hurt my people, I will be the king of subjugation!!"

"You're crazy...you're crazy!!"

Shen Yan sat silently, indifferent.

He picked up the thick rope on the ground and tied it up from his feet in circles, wanting to bind himself firmly to the dragon chair—he would rather sit on the throne and die than release Qi Sha to kill him. people.

——It's just so ridiculous that the emperor's position, once fought by tens of thousands of people, has finally become the place where he died.

The dream when he was young, he said he wanted to live, desperately trying to survive in the palace of intrigues and deceptions.

But who would have thought that the fate of a person is doomed since birth.No matter how he struggled, the seven death stars, like twins, always enveloped his life.

Like looking at a fool who makes people laugh, I swear to become the king of ZTE and never embark on the road of subjugation.

...Only Chu Yuan.

Shen Yan staggered and thought in a trance: only Chu Yuan was the only one who was sorry in his life.

He invited him out of Sinan Mountain, and said that he would join hands with him to see Haiyan and Heqing, and become two people whose names are connected after being recorded in the annals of history...but he suffered a lot of grievances in this star-field capital.

I don't know what kind of mood he was in when he finally left Hoshino Capital without saying goodbye.

...The only thing to be thankful for is the dream that has appeared in his mind countless times:

Chu Yuan would jump down from the city tower amidst the flames of war.

Now Sheng Yang's subjugation has come true, but Chu Yuan has already left the capital of stars and fields... Shouldn't he die like in a dream again?

If Chu Yuan also became one of the thousands of people who died for Sheng Yang, it would be more heartbreaking for Shen Yan than being a king of subjugation.

The desperate king panted heavily, and he took a last look at the emperor's court hall that had lasted for a hundred years——

The gold-plated hall is still shining brightly, and in the emptiness, it seems that you can still see the scene of the prosperous kings of all dynasties sitting here waiting for all the officials to worship in the past hundred years.

Grass and trees rise and fall, and their prosperity is endless.

The Ze of Gentlemen, he will be executed in the fifth generation.

That's it.

I can only sigh that the majestic red wall is still there, and the king has become a subjugated slave.

Shen Yan smiled miserably, and finally clenched her hands tightly, and suddenly fell forward——

A candlestick was burning in front of it.Instead of staying for a few more hours and watching the rebels rush into the palace with their own eyes, it would be better to become the martyrs of this century-old dynasty together with many truly innocent dead souls.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty—"

However, at this moment, a slightly unfamiliar but panting voice came from outside the door.

A man in eunuch clothes anxiously pushed open the palace door——

Shen Yan, who was already sitting in the raging fire, raised his eyes indifferently, and met his eyes. The person who came came screamed and called out: "Your Majesty!"

"—Minister, it's too late to save you!!"

……

Chongxin three years, May.

The Jinghua Palace was on fire.

The luxurious royal palace that had been repaired by countless material resources and manpower was burned, and the magnificent palace was finally reduced to ashes.

However, it was extremely surprising that when the latecomers searched for the ashes of the Jinghua Palace, they did not find the remains of the last prosperous king, Shen Yan.

In the end, the location of the Gilded Temple was only the ruins of the house, and it was not possible to find a complete body.

Some people said that it was because Emperor Chongxin was not dead yet, and his former close friend Chu Yuan, the young master of Guanxing Pavilion who was expelled from the capital of stars, came to rescue him; The place where the ancestors went to court, found another hidden place and committed suicide; others said that the fire was too big, and after burning for several days, the bones had long been burned to ashes...

But in any case, this has nothing to do with the tens of thousands of people displaced by Sheng Yang.

All they thought about during those months of hell on earth was how to survive.

"Hey, young man!"

On the day of the Duanyang Festival, a farmer from his own village went to another village to go to the market.

When passing through the capital of the stars, I met a man in white in the forest.

He looked like he was only seventeen or eighteen years old, his body was stained, his long black hair was messily scattered on his shoulders, behind him, and a little sticking to his cheeks.

The farmer saw that he was weak, but he was dragging a huge heavy object on his back, and it looked like he was struggling from the back.

I couldn't help leaning forward enthusiastically, wanting to ask him if he needed help.

"Young man, I have an ox cart here. Wherever you want to go, I can take you there."

The farmer smiled and said, "It's not easy to live through the war, and now we meet by chance, and we are all predestined people! Help each other, don't be shy!..."

As he spoke, he wanted to pull the rope of the man in white, but he stretched out his hand in the air, and suddenly said "Drink!"

"This……"

The farmer's words were stuck in his throat, and he was shocked: what the boy in white was pulling was actually a huge coffin...!

The inner and outer coffins were carved from catalpa wood, with intricate and exquisite textures on the outside, and the engravings are still very new, as if they were carved by someone themselves not long ago.

The whole is silvery white.

"you……"

The farmer looked at the man in white, and then at the silver coffin, dumbfounded. He didn't know whether to say "Are you going to return to your hometown with your relatives who died in battle?"

However, no matter what he said, the expression on his face changed several times, the face of the man in white was always numb and indifferent, as if he had lost his response to everything in the world.No matter what happened outside, he no longer cared.

"You...you are bleeding!!"

After a while, the farmer who had already been greatly impacted screamed again, pointing at Xi Huai and shouting.

Xi Huai carried the coffin on his back and walked for tens of miles, dragging along the road, blood scabs appeared on his shoulders, back, hands and palms.

But he has no sense at all.

When the dreamgrass broke out and coughed with blood, it didn't seem to be in pain.

"Wait for me to die..."

His eyes turned black for a while, and when he fell forward at the last moment, he looked at the farmer who was rushing towards him and said, "...bury me with this coffin."

It is enough to die with him.

The farmer turned pale with fright. He never thought that he would kill a person just by saying hello as soon as he went out.

"Hey, hello...!"

He tried to shake Xihuai, but he felt a coldness in his palm—it was Xihuai who loosened a gold baht from his palm before he fainted, probably as a reward for burying himself and Yinzhichuan.

"What's the matter with you...don't die."

The farmer trembled, leaned down to listen to Xi Huai's heartbeat, and then tremblingly tried to detect Xi Huai's breath——

"What is this."

However, all of a sudden, he saw a package of medicine from Xi Huai's arms.

The farmer was stunned for a moment, he hesitated, stretched out his hand, and took the medicine powder out of Xi Huai's arms.

——It was the antidote for the dream herb that Xi Huai had begged from Huacishu.

Things in the world are sometimes so clumsy and bad taste:

When you are trying to survive, fate forbids you, so that you will be separated from yin and yang at the end of the world; when you compromise and give up, only wishing to be in the same acupuncture point after death, it should not be the same, and only wishing you to cross the same hole will become a fantasy.

When Xi Huai woke up at the farmer's house, he was stunned and silent for a long time.

The farmer's family was immersed in the joy that he had saved a person by accident, and ecstatically told Xihuai how he found a packet of medicinal powder in his arms, and how he only held one or two percent of his body. It was a fluke to convince him... Unexpectedly, it was really useful!

Accidentally hit him and saved him!

Xi Huai listened blankly, at that moment, what he thought of was Yin Zhichuan once said, "Even in the next life, I don't want to see you again."

Is it because that person still has spiritual consciousness in the dark?

I really don't want to see him again in the next life, and I don't want to share the same hole with him, the person who once deceived me, so I told him not to ask for death on purpose, and dirty his place after death.

Crystal tears fell drop by drop from the pale face of the man in white. The farmer's family looked at him in amazement and said in shock:

"Hey! Young master, why are you still crying after being alive?..."

……

70 years later.

Sheng Yang and Liang negotiated the border.

Jiangzhou Yuncun.

"During the previous dynasties, Dijing was not called Dijing, but the Capital of the Stars. There were ten great families in the Capital of the Stars, namely Yin, Lin, Zhao, Zhu, Qin, and Li... among them, Shulin and Yin were the most Feng Sheng. One is the head of civil servants, and the other is the peak of military officials..."

Under the shady tree, several children aged seven or eight gathered together, chattering:

"Today we will play this! I will choose first, I will choose first, I will choose the most magnificent Fu'an son, Chu Xianyu...!"

"Hurrah."

Another child said that he vigorously picked up a branch from the ground, made a gesture, and said with a smile: "Then I will choose Yinzhichuan, the head of military officers! The master of the soldiers of the world!..."

"Well, then I want Young Master Jinling, Ye Zhuyan..."

The third child spoke softly.

"Hey, but don't you like little Jiang Ning?"

A boy wearing a monster mask on the side opened his eyes wide and asked, "You chose Ye Zhuyan, but Mr. Xihuai didn't end up with Mr. Yin Qi."

"..."

The soft-spoken child blushed, looked down at his fingers, and said, "But... but Major General Yin likes Mr. Jinling."

"Hey, then you might as well replace him with Qin Ge and Song Ji Zhaoyue."

Said the child wearing a monster mask——he played Tanlang Yanjin.From the point of view of wearing a mask, it imitated Yan Jin's habit of covering his face with an iron mask to a full extent.

The child said: "The two of them are together. But General Yinqi and Young Master Jinling are enemies, he hates him, and he also hates him. He lied to him, and he didn't even see him again...!"

"..."

"Who says enemies can't be together."

The boy who was the first to choose "Mr. Fu'an Chu Yuan" spoke. He tapped his "disciple" Yan Jin and said, "'I' and 'you' are also enemies. But Emperor Chaomu likes him very much. Master Fu An, the whole of Zhonglu knows their story!"

"That, so different..."

Little "Yan Jin" said, his voice muffled: "Emperor Chaomu likes his master, but his master doesn't like him. In the end, Mr. Fu'an..."

"Okay, stop arguing!"

The child who looked the most like a little adult interrupted everyone and said, "That's how it is. You can choose Yushi Tailin Zhenfeng and Yudian Dadu Li Sinian. They have no hatred or hatred, they are still childhood sweethearts... ...!"

"But Lin Yushi finally died."

"Yinzhichuan" who was squatting on the side said in a low voice: "It's still Lingchi. The Imperial Palace Commander also disappeared during the final scuffle. It is said that the two of them did not see each other for the last time."

"..."

"This this."

The children were speechless, and after a long time of boredom, they choked out a sentence: "Then they are not together?"

The storyteller's son nodded: "They didn't end up together."

At the end of the history book, they were separated in all directions, separated from the person they loved the most.

Just like the sour poem said, "A human heart is as small as an inch, and mountains and seas are thousands of miles away."

The people who love each other the most in this world are always separated by the farthest distance.

The children looked at the open space in the middle with disappointment, and suddenly understood the realization that "history is always the cruelest thing".

The story that was sung in the playbook, when the dust settled, it was just "they never saw each other again. They were never together."

"Xiao Dingguo - go home for dinner -"

After a while, a long shout came from the head of the village, and the children were startled, only to realize that it was time to go home for dinner at dusk.

Cooking smoke curled up from each house, hovering and floating towards the sky.

The children took off the monster masks they were wearing and the fake silver guns they picked up from the deserted temple, stretched and scattered in all directions.Before parting, they may have made an appointment with each other to come and play together again after dinner, shortly after nightfall.

This is the No. 70 year since the Hoshino Capital campaign ended.

There is no such country as "Sheng Yang" in China.But after the Shen Yan of the King of Subjugation, it was not the emperor of Yanqi who won the magnificent territory.Instead, he was succeeded to the throne by someone absolutely unexpected——

Yan Jin, Chu Yuan's former little disciple and the posthumous son whose family had been beheaded, was Yan Jin.

He is an absolute tyrant far surpassing all the cruel monarchs of the Five Kingdoms in Central China. When he stepped onto the stage of history, others would even think, how could the gentle and compassionate Mr. Fu'an teach such a cruel and extreme disciple.

He deviated from the scriptures and committed serious crimes. He even committed an unforgivable felony against his master.

A hundred years after his death, there are still various dramas about his entanglement with Chu Yuan, which are unspeakably beautiful.

Say it is pious, say it is humble, say it is nostalgic but unobtainable.

The world calls it "Emperor Chaomu".

However, all this is a later story.

"...I have seen that the jade trees in Jinling are singing dawn, and the waterside pavilions in Qinhuai are blooming early."

Holding a black bone umbrella and wearing a small golden crown, Jun Zaiye walked into the alley humming a little tune softly.

Although this place is small, it belongs to the south of the Yangtze River after all, and has the features of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River.

Not to mention the white walls of Daiwa, every household is planted with green climbing grass, which climbs over the top of the wall and hangs out of the courtyard.

"Who knows that the prosperity is easy to disappear... Seeing him building a Zhulou, seeing him entertaining guests, seeing his building collapse... This moss and green tile pile, I have slept in a romantic sleep, and watched the rise and fall of 50 years. The black clothes Alley, not surnamed Wang; Mochou Lake, where ghosts cry at night; Fenghuang Terrace, where owls live. The dream of the residual mountain is the most real, and the old environment is hard to lose. If you don’t believe this map, change the manuscript, and make a set of "sad Jiangnan" to let out mournful voices Sing until old." [*Note 1]

Jun Zaiye hummed softly all the way, turned around the alley, walked across the bridge, and stopped in front of a small wooden house with a single door.

The cabin is located by the lake, not very big, but extremely quiet.

There is a birch forest outside, and a blue lake by the window.I want to see the silver sparkling moonlight every night before going to bed; when I wake up in the morning, there is a thin morning light with mist outside.If it rains, there will be the sound of dripping rain.In front of the gate, there are also two peach trees.In spring, you can eat peaches, and when you knock chess pieces late at night, one or two peach tree petals will fall on the window sill.

Jun Zaiye smiled slightly, put away the umbrella, folded it on the fence in front of the door, and knocked lightly on the door.

When I got closer, I found that the yard of the house was still planted with weeds, and there were many small porcelain figurines on the window sills.Sitting or standing, they are very cute, but they all look like they are old.

A swing in front of the door swayed gently with the breeze.

"Come uninvited, sorry to bother you."

Jun said loudly in the wild.

But there was still no movement in the room, so he was not polite, pushed aside the fence, and walked in by himself.

This hut is extremely exquisite. Even though it has been more than half a century, its interior decoration and carving still look unique.

Doors and windows pasted with white cotton paper, tables and chairs made of unpainted pine wood... When Yinzhichuan handed over the deed of this cottage located in Jiangzhou to Xihuai, it really took a lot of effort to prepare.

Although it is by the lake, it is not affected by moisture, and it is very dry in winter and summer.

"Well... you're here."

On the couch, a man in white was sleeping lightly.

A thin blanket was draped over his body. Although he was approaching old age, he could still see the peerless elegance and unparalleled elegance of his youth from his eyebrows and eyes.

Hearing the movement, he stood up a little.

"Oh? You know me?"

Jun Zaiye showed a slightly surprised look on his face, and asked with a half-smile.

But then, he noticed a Buddhist hall and blue lanterns in the house.

As well as other decorations, it also shows a kind of solemnity and Zen.

"I've been with Qing Deng for a long time."

Xi Huai said lightly.He supported his body, and it seemed that it was a little difficult to stand up with age, but there was still an indescribable coldness in his frowns.

Jun Zaiye smiled slightly, playing with an emerald bodhi on the altar.

"Oh, it seems that you have broken the world..."

"Yeah, the so-called world of mortals is nothing more than that without a certain person. It's easy to penetrate."

Xi Huai smiled lightly, he put on his clothes and lay down on the bed, and asked: "Why, you came today, is it finally my deadline?"

"..." Jun Zaiye paused for a moment: "Not bad."

"No wonder."

Xi Huai lowered his head, raised the corners of his lips slightly, stared at the little porcelain people brought from Sheng Yang on the window sill, and said as if bewildered: "Just now I had a dream from a long time ago."

"What dream?"

"I dreamed about the time when I met Yinzhichuan in the cloud building in the early days."

Xi Huai smiled lightly, and said: "I also dreamed about Cuoshen Lane, brewing flower wine in the town government's mansion, and buying porcelain figurines under the bridge. It was a long time ago. I haven't dreamed about it for a long time either. ——He is not often willing to enter my dreams."

Jun Zaino paused and asked:

"Dreams about those... hurts, doesn't it?"

As someone who has had the same experience as Xihuai and Yinzhichuan, he can easily empathize with many things.

"nor."

Xi Huai smiled, lowered his eyes and said: "Dreams don't hurt people. What hurts people is only the past."

When he was young and frivolous, spring was shining in Jinli, and the amazingly talented young man met the unrestrained son and brother.

That moment of surprise, that moment of grace.

It has not faded over a hundred years.

But this is often the case—the more amazing the beginning, the more desolate the ending.

In the silence, neither of them spoke again.

After a while, Xi Huai asked, "How much time do I have?"

"how?"

Jun Zaiye slightly raised his eyebrows and came back to his senses: "Do you have any unfinished business?"

"Yes. And no."

Xi Huai said: "It was just that I promised him at the beginning that at the end of the sky and the end of the country, we would have another good swing with him. It's just...it never came true afterwards."

The man in white looked at the lonely swing outside the courtyard.Since it was built, Xihuai has never sat on it by himself.

He always seemed to have a ridiculous, unrealistic expectation—

As if the person he was waiting for would return one day.

Sometimes when there is any movement outside, or the jeremiah shakes slightly, he will suddenly stand up to see if there is a long-lost old friend visiting.

But in fact...his tombstone, his coffin, and his body were all buried by himself...

"One more hour."

Jun Zaiye said: "You have enough time to fulfill any regrets you don't want to leave behind."

"Then go sit on the swing for a while."

Xi Huai said, "There are not many regrets that can be made up. I just want to leave this world in a place related to him."

With heavy eyes, Jun Zaiye watched the man in white push open the door and slowly walk towards the courtyard.

70 years, a full 70 years.

When you are doomed to lose your loved one and spend the rest of your life alone, the longer you live, the more painful it will be.

Xihuai's pace towards the swing was very peaceful.Step by step, calm and steady, it seems that I have been looking forward to this day for a long time.

He will soon be freed from this pain, but what about himself?

Jun Zainye thought: His pain is endless and has no end in sight...

He walks in the world where there are traces of offering sacrifices to floating life everywhere, but there has been no offering sacrifices to floating living here for a long time.

Jun Zaiye stared at the empty house, his eyes resting on the small low table.

The sun gradually set, leaving only a layer of afterglow.

The sky turned a peacock blue, and a new moon rose.

Jun Zaiye walked out of the house.

Xi Huai was still sitting on the swing, but his eyes were closed.

He slept peacefully, as if just asleep.

But the forehead that was leaning on the swing frame, no longer warm, showed that the man was gone.

Jun Zaiye watched a lost soul, but on the book of mortals in his arms, a second line of words appeared.

"The world of mortals is ten bitter. The second bitter beauty is late."

The silent moonlight shrouded people like a layer of faint frost.

Jun Zaino stretched out his finger for a long time, and touched Xihuai lightly——

The next moment, the sleeping man in white looked like a sculpture made of thousands of fireflies, and suddenly turned into countless white fragments, dissipating away.

Only one emerald green stone with small flowers was left on the swing.

"I told him you're a little rock."

Jun Zaiye said in a low voice, as if whispering: "But I didn't tell him that you are originally a jadeite inlaid on the silver gun. You... should be integrated into one body."

However, under the moonlight, a small silver flower bloomed from that heartless, heartless pebble that didn't understand the emotions and desires at first.

Swaying slightly in the night wind.

--THAN--

[*Note 1]: From "Peach Blossom Fan" - Kong Shang in the Qing Dynasty