Looking back

Huazheng seemed to be recalling the past, the corners of his mouth slightly curled up, and Yang Kang also remembered the scene when the two of them roamed the rivers and lakes together when they were young. If you meet any small fish and shrimp in the rivers and lakes, you will run away.

Yang Kang asked, "What did my master say after he checked your pulse?" Huazheng shrugged, "It's still the same." She leaned her head lightly on his shoulder and remained silent. Yang Kang put his arms around her, " Then think of another way."

Huazheng shook his head and said, "No, I don't want to think about any other methods. I've had enough tormenting. Anyway, it's just a temporary solution, not a root cause." Yang Kang comforted, "If you don't want to torment, then don't bother." Huazheng has tried many methods, not to mention all kinds of medicinal materials, taking medicinal baths in the hot springs in Aershan, and even using internal force to force the toxin to the fingertips and then cutting and bleeding, all of which had little effect.

She continued, "I remember when I was chatting with my classmates before, I once said that if I got cancer, I don't want to spend 10,000+ yuan on chemotherapy and suffer from suffering. It's better to use that money to travel and take the places I want to go. Once the place is gone, we can leave without regret. The time we can be together is running out, really not much." Huazheng raised his head from his shoulders, "So I regret, why did I spend all the time before? Wasted."

Yang Kang poked her forehead and said, "Silly girl, if not being together is a waste, then the ten years before I went to the grassland to find you, wouldn't it be a waste?" Seeing that Huazheng was still tilting his head trying to refute, he smiled slightly and said, "Passing away!" It’s over, just don’t waste it in the future.”

Huazheng said "hmm", "If possible, I really want to be with you forever. If possible, I would rather not be there when I leave at the end." Then there was a long silence before he said in a low voice, "If I can If so, I really don't want to lie to you."

Yang Kang heard her bring up the past again, "The past is over. No one can do anything about the past. Tell me where you want to go and what else do you want to do?"

Huazheng smiled happily, "Where are we going? Let me think about it. After sending Guo Jing away on the Western Expedition, we will go for a walk. I am going to Xixia to see if there is still a portrait of Li Qiushui in the palace, and then go to Wuliang If there is still time after the Western Expedition, we will go west along the Silk Road to see the Persian Mingjiao saint, maybe it is Xiao Zhao's great-great-great-grandmother..."

"Isn't the holy woman not allowed to marry and have children?" Yang Kang complained, Hua Zheng glared at him, "Don't interrupt! Then you can go west, all the way to Europe..." Yang Kang asked with a smile, "Europe is doing something right now." Well? Well, I know I'm history blind." Huazheng tilted his head and said, "The Crusades, anyway, it's the Middle Ages under the control of the Holy See."

The sky was as cold as water, Yang Kang went back to the tent and brought the sable fur cloak that Boertie had just rewarded, and carefully wrapped it around her.Huazheng raised his head and continued cheerfully, "Also, we can talk about the past."

Yang Kang joked, "When I asked about the past, you said I was like an interrogator. Why do you want to talk about it now?" Hua Zheng snorted, "Of course it's different now, I want to know about your past. " Then he made a face, "For example, have you ever been married, uncle?"

"What's the matter, are you worried about my bigamy?" Yang Kang stretched out his hand to pinch Huazheng's face, but she slapped it off with her hand, and then smiled with a serious and threatening expression, "I'll give you a chance to tell the truth, don't miss it Seeing that she was having a good time talking, Yang Kang hugged her and sat down, picked up the wine in the jug, and poured it out, "Then I have to tell the truth after drinking, it's a boring story, do you really want to hear it? "

Huazheng snatched the glass he poured first, took a small sip, and said with sparkling eyes, "Let's talk about it." Yang Kang picked up the glass and drank it down, "I have a fiancee who I met on a blind date. Before the wedding, my mother When kidney failure was discovered, we broke up."

"Kidney failure, so we have to do dialysis all the time?" Seeing that she knew it, Yang Kang continued, "This burden is too great, there is no reason for others to bear it, and my mother's life is maintained on a few thousand dollars a week. In terms of [-] yuan, the salary is not enough. But I can always pay the fee in time, my mother asked me, and I said it was donated by kind people.”

"So, it's not?"

Yang Kang said with a wry smile, "Some things can only be said after drinking." He felt very thirsty, and when he finished another drink, Hua Zheng held down his hand, "You know what it means for a policeman to make money. It started, the higher-ups were very determined, many people were investigated, and I knew that I would be the next one. I didn’t have to go to the front line, but I still led people myself, without wearing a bulletproof vest, and rushed to the bullet.”

"That's not suicide, but death?" Hua Zheng's voice trembled a little, "Then your mother?"

"My mother has gone through too much. A son who died heroically in the line of duty is better than a son who was sent to court and imprisoned. I don't know what they will say to my mother afterwards." He smiled bitterly, "So you When you say that I am a good person, I really don't know what to say, and the things I have done may not even be imagined by you."

Huazheng said a little unconvinced, "But, you are here to treat your mother!"

Yang Kang smiled, "Silly girl, don't make excuses for me. Sometimes I say to myself, it's because once I fall in, I can't get out, but I know where the line is, and I've already crossed it. To sinners Eluting the charges and leaving the victims nowhere to seek justice is just the beginning, and in the end, fighting for power and deceiving others for the sake of self-protection has nothing to do with medical expenses at all.”

He picked up another glass and felt that the sweet wine had become bitter. "Before I decided to die, I often thought, what would my mother think if she knew that I had become such a person? Maybe I was unwilling when I died, so God Let me do it again, and this time I will never live the same life again."

Huazheng also fell silent after hearing this, and he smiled wryly, "Do you think that I..." was interrupted by Huazheng, "No!"

Yang Kang looked at her eyes eager to express trust, and smiled, "But you are different. You were still a student before time travel, and you were still full of curiosity and fighting spirit. You live in a step-by-step ordinary life, and you want to live a richer and more exciting life." In life, I want to become a legend, that's why I can't help but call you a girl..."

Huazheng was thinking silently, until he heard the word "girl" and was about to blow his hair again. Suddenly he heard the horn rushing, Huazheng listened attentively, "This is my father's order to summon all the generals." When he got out of the tent, he saw, I saw the sound of horseshoes from all around, all converging towards the Khan's military tent, and saw the torches gathering like long snakes, all surrounding a hill near the military tent.

Yang Kang remembered that a few years ago when Jamuka besieged Temujin on the hill with a marriage contract, it was surrounded by flames, but now it is not what it used to be, the mountain is not an enemy, they are all his generals.Yang Kang heard the horns and shouts shaking heaven and earth, and knew that this was a pre-war mobilization, so he said, "The Western Expedition is finally about to begin."

Hua Zheng nodded, "After all, Khwarazmo is a powerful country in the Western Regions, and its military strength is ten times that of Mongolia, so Father Khan sent envoys. If they are willing to return the bodies of the [-] merchants and the property they detained, the two countries will be repaired. I listen to you Mom said that the envoys sent out this time were killed again, and only a few left had their beards burnt. Although the news had spread long ago, the few surviving envoys arrived only tonight. Only humiliating scenes can inspire hatred and fighting spirit."

Genghis Khan prayed for the dead messenger for three days and three nights on the top of the mountain, and the Western Expeditionary Army was quickly reorganized.Guo Jing was named commander-in-chief, and he only took time to meet Hua Zheng once, saying that Genghis Khan had ordered him, "You haven't completed the mission of the day, so I won't blame you for now, I only hope that you will make contributions in the Western Expedition before you can marry me." daughter."

After taking the oath, the army broke out, and Queen Hulan accompanied her, while Queen Boertie stayed behind to manage affairs.

They walked slowly along the post road to Xingqing Mansion, the capital of the Xixia king. Huazheng said that when Xixia surrendered, she had presented a map of the palace, and now she got it. However, Yang Kang secretly thought that this map was requested by her from the beginning. of.She said happily, "Look here, the circled area with mountains is the study of Princess Xixia who married Xu Zhu back then. Say, don't we look like the robbers who stepped on the spot in advance?"

The imperial city is majestic and built on the hillside. You can see the painted corners and cornices from the windows. Yang Kang smiled and said, "We just sneaked in like this?" Hua Zheng said, "What's the matter? , Xixia’s is not necessarily so difficult, everything depends on you~”

Since visiting the palace at night is one of the items on the wish list, after nightfall, Yang Kang took her into the palace wall, bypassing the patrolling guards, and came to the Qingfeng Pavilion shown on the map.There is no one here, and it has obviously been abandoned. You only need to use a sharp knife to open the door lock and enter the pavilion.Yang Kang looked at the layout carefully, and after going around a few bends, he entered a long corridor, which was tens of feet long, before he saw two large stone gates at the end.

Huazheng exclaimed, "I didn't expect it to exist." I saw that the stone gate was more than one foot thick, but fortunately it was not closed. After walking through a corridor, I saw another stone gate half-closed. Huazheng told Yang Kang to stop and examine the gate carefully. What kind of mysterious mechanism is there? After checking for a long time but still confused, Huazheng sighed, "I thought that the secret way mechanism had already been done in the ancient tomb. Who knew that this place is even more nonsense. I guess these organs are in the Xixia Palace. No one would use it any more, so it was discarded."

The two continued to move forward, and suddenly heard the sound of water, stopped and found a deep stream in front of them, Yang Kang smiled and said, "I know where this is, the princess of Xixia will test whether they can walk across the iron chain." Zheng chuckled, "It's really a beautiful idea to return the iron rope. It's steel wire."

"What about the steel wires?" Yang Kang examined carefully by the light of the fire, and sure enough, he saw three thin and straight steel wires extending to the opposite bank.Immediately picked up Huazheng, walked on the steel wire with lightness kung fu, reached the other side in the blink of an eye, and asked, "How is it?"

Huazheng held the lamp in one hand, and protected the lamp from being blown out by the cold wind at the bottom of the stream with the other. He didn't blink, "It's not as good as I used to." The acrobatic troupe can just walk the tightrope." The two of them walked through a pine forest and saw a cave door. After entering, there was a huge natural cave with some abandoned tables and chairs in the middle. The cave was extremely dry, and there was no water vapor but tables and chairs There was a lot of dust on it.

Huazheng raised the lamp to shine on the cave wall, "Look here." Yang Kang also leaned over, and saw that the stone wall behind the calligraphy and painting had uneven ups and downs. Most of them are messy and rough chisel marks, as if all the murals have been chiseled away.He groped carefully, and found that the wall was full of gouges, and said regretfully, "It's a pity that Li Qiushui's martial arts secret books carved on the stone have all been destroyed."

Huazheng sighed, "What a pity, Xiaoyao's martial arts can't be practiced with other martial arts. You have to abolish the previous martial arts to learn." The cave house is indeed a tradition of the Xiaoyao sect. I just don’t know why the emperor would allow his concubine to dig a cave here, and why Li Qiushui later gave this place to the princess to live in.”

Yang Kang smiled and said, "This is the place where Princess Xixia recruited her relatives back then. Sure enough, the world of Tianlong is connected with this place. It's a pity that Yipintang has declined, and the three religions and nine elites gathered by commissions disappeared when the country's power declined. Even the sad breeze Also lost."

"Then you said where is the Vulture Palace that Xu Zhu and she went back to? Could it be in Xixia?" Yang Kang said, "Then look for it, there will always be some legends left." Hua Hua Zheng shook his head and said, "I've been inquiring for a long time, but I don't have any clues. Why don't I go to Wuliang Mountain first."

Going to Wuliang Mountain is of course for the Wuliangyu Cave where Wu Yazi and his junior sister live in seclusion. That mountain is within the territory of Dali Kingdom, and the former Wuliang Sword School on the mountain has also disappeared.After leaving the Xixia Palace, the two slowly moved forward in the Xixia territory, planning to pass through Shaanxi via the middle of Shu, and then turn to Yunnan.

After more than half a month, we arrived at Yanzhi Mountain in Xixia territory.This mountain is located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor. It is known as the throat of sweetness and coolness. It has always been the gateway from the Central Plains to the Western Regions.Huo Qubing once defeated the Xiongnu here, and the Huns who left their hometown left a sad folk song: "If I lose Qilian Mountain, my animals will not live; if I lose Yanzhi Mountain, my married woman will have no color."

Even in the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had an edict to meet the envoys of 27 countries in the Western Regions here. There are so many rare treasures from all directions, it can be called the longest international exposition.Today, this place is half farming and half pastoral. There are a few farmhouses in the mountains, and cattle and sheep roam the wilderness among the gurgling streams.

Huazheng smiled and said, "It's the right time." Yang Kang saw the red and blue flowers all over the mountains and plains, and thought of a poem, "Although I live in Yanzhi Mountain, I don't know how snowy and cold. Women immediately laugh, and their faces are like jade. Disk. This is what I’m talking about.”

After hearing him finish reading, Huazheng repeated one sentence, "Women laugh right away, women laugh right away. This must be a Tang poem, otherwise how could I write it into a poem while riding a horse casually." Yang Kang said with a smile, "It's really smart, this is written by Li Bai. Yes. The last sentence, Yan Rufeiyu, Hongyu, means that this place is rich in rouge flowers, and it was famous from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. Did you come here by detour because you want to get some rouge?"

Huazheng joked, "You still know the rouge flower. This flower blooms everywhere on the grassland. When we were young, we picked its flowers to make rouge, and its young leaves and seedlings were dried and eaten in winter. Later, we read the Pharmacopoeia. Only then did I know that the scientific name is Honglanhua, the flower Hongyelan, which is also a traditional Chinese medicine, and it was Zhang Qian who brought back the seeds from his mission to the Western Regions that made rouge popular."

"What do you want to do by yourself? Make rouge for medicine?" Huazheng smiled, "I don't need to eat red and blue flowers that dispel blood stasis and activate blood. Make some rouge and treat it as the second master of Bao." Jump off the horse, take out a piece of cotton cloth and spread it on the ground, put the picked red flowers on the cloth, "Compete and see who picked more!"

"Be careful, there are thorns under the flowers." Yang Kang reminded, and began to help her pick flowers.At this time, the weather is fine and the sea of ​​flowers is endless, until there are so many flowers that the cloth can hardly cover them, then the two corners are tied together to form a big package and continue to move forward.

Go further south and you will arrive at Shanyong County.There is a historic site here, which is the Ningji Gong Temple built at the southern foot of Yanzhi Mountain when Emperor Taizong's favorite general and Turkic Ge Shuhan was awarded the Hexi Jiedu envoy. Many people here use rouge As a business, the proprietress of the inn is a master at it. She readily lent the two people the arbor where she made rouge, as well as various tools and materials.

The petals are rinsed with well water, crushed in a stone mortar, washed with clear water, and then twisted with a fine cloth bag. After removing a layer of yellow juice, they are repeatedly smashed and washed, filtered with rice vinegar to remove the yellow color, and finally filtered with alkaline water to filter out the red flower. The rouge juice, as long as it is evaporated to a paste, it is the best rouge.

The shop owner brought well water for the two to wash off the redness on their hands. Huazheng smiled and said, "The last time I put on rouge was when I got married. Have I not dressed up for a long time?" Yang Kang straightened her hair, After examining it carefully for a while, "It looks good with or without makeup."

Huazheng laughed loudly, "You flatterer, I know you must be as pale as a ghost, no wonder you look good."

Yang Kang said with a smile, "It's not pretty, but would it look good if it was painted like a monkey's butt?" Hua Zheng naturally rolled his eyes at him, but the smile couldn't be restrained from the corners of his eyes and brows, "I've done so much, and I can't use it." , let’s give it to some sisters.”

On the second day, those rouges were divided into several boxes and sent to the post station.The two proceeded lightly until they left the border of Xixia and arrived at Mount Zhongnan. Huazheng suddenly said, "I want to go back to the ancient tomb."