beg for chivalry

Even though it was March, there was heavy snow falling in the sky.

In previous years, it would have been called Peach Blossom Snow by the people of Jiading, and one could faintly see a sign of the coming of spring from the color of the snow.But this year is unusual, the cold wind is blowing like ice knives, the lattice windows are trembling in the wind, the branches of crabapple blossoms are covered with rime, the courtyard is covered with silver, and it is desolate.

Jin Wu was wrapped in an otter skin cloak, holding a kite in his arms, standing alone in front of the main house.He stood for a long time, and the snowflakes falling all over the sky fell on his shoulders and hair, covering him like a snowman.

There was a continuous low coughing sound from behind the fan, and Jin Wu's heart was beating continuously with the severity of the coughing sound.

Suddenly there was a creaking sound, the fan was opened, and a strong smell of medicine spread out from inside.The Golden Crow has a sharp nose, and smells a faint smell of rust.He was about to take a step forward when a woman in a sky blue dress hurried over the threshold and came out.Aunt Yue looked anxious, with a folded thin quilt draped under her arms, with patches of bright red and dark blood on top of each other, like shocking clouds.

"Ah..." Jin Wu was taken aback and staggered.Aunt Yue caught a glimpse of him, her hasty steps stopped abruptly, a narrow smile appeared on her pale face: "...young master."

Jin Wu settled down, held the kite and raised his head, "Aunt Yue, can I go in and see Mother?"

"Oh, Ma'am is busy today, so I can't fly the kite with you." Aunt Yue's eyes flashed panic, she put the bloody thin quilt behind her, touched Jinwu's head with the other hand, and forced a smile , "I want A Pan and Xiao Yuan to accompany you, okay?"

"A Pan rushed to the silkworm market to buy Kushiba bean wine, which he said could dispel the cold." Jinwu said, "As for Wang Xiaoyuan...hmph, I don't want to see him!"

When he said this, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his eyes were full of resentment.Ever since he got up in the middle of the night and saw Wang Xiaoyuan stealing his most precious lacquered wooden box from the study, he was suffocated and never said a word to Wang Xiaoyuan.

At this time, there seemed to be a hazy black shadow moving slightly behind the colonnade.Jin Wu looked back, but saw nothing, so he turned his head in doubt.Wang Xiaoyuan was lying under the bench in the curved corridor, just now he hid in a hurry and got a swollen bump on his forehead.At this time, he carefully looked at Jinwu from a distance, not daring to make a sound.

Seeing that Jinwu didn't see him, Wang Xiaoyuan got up anxiously and hid behind the pillar.For the first time in his life, he felt that he had done something wrong.Obviously in the past, Mrs. Wang and Qian Xian'er taught him to touch other people's purses and purses. You don't have to go through the door to enter someone's house, just climb over the wall. You can see how indifferent Jin Wu has been to him these days, but he Get scared.

Aunt Yue patted Jinwu's shoulder and hissed softly, as if she wanted to drive him away from the door.Jin Wu reluctantly took a step forward, but did not go far, found a cold and hard stone bench in the veranda and sat down.The little shadow was motionless, like a stubborn stone in the rustling snow.

A dying candle was burning in the anteroom.

A woman was leaning on a flowered cloth pillow, her face was as pale as snow, and her shiny black hair was pouring down her clothes like a waterfall.The flickering candlelight illuminated her plain but haggard face.She was staring at the snowflakes falling leisurely in the cracks of the window drawers, reaching out her hand to gently wipe off the snow foam on the latticework.The snow spots in the palm of the hand turned into crystal water traces in a short while, and disappeared completely.

A few coughs broke the silence in the room.At first it was a slight low wheezing, interspersed with a few unbearable coughs, which became more and more severe, and finally turned into a severe hissing cough.Little drops of blood fell on the quilt, like wintersweet flowers that had bloomed outside the window a few months ago.

"Ren, Ren..."

In the dim light of the fire, her mind was dying like a dying candle.There seemed to be an invisible hand pulling her into the chaos, but she knew that if she closed her eyes, she might turn into dust, melt into candle tears, her mind collapsed and her body died.Someone was calling her name softly but anxiously, Hui Lanwu also opened his eyes with difficulty, only to see Ning Yuanhou guarding beside the bed.

This heroic and brave man, who was passed down from word to mouth, had sunken eye sockets and dark blue eyes, his hair was untied, hanging down his shoulders in a mess, and there was a blue stubble on his chin.Ning Yuanhou looked at her deeply, and there seemed to be endless words in his eyes.

"Are you feeling better, Jin?"

"...I thought that I would never see you again when I fell asleep this time." Hui Lanwu also shook his head, and said softly, with an air of gossamer. "I had a very long dream... In the dream, we took Jinwu to the river bank to release paper kites. The sky was sunny and the wind was warm..."

"But when I opened my eyes, there was nothing but snow." She said, "The boundless white snow should have been the hometown of passers-by in Hatz. There was only yellow sand in the hot summer and frost and snow in the severe winter. It was a barren land." It's really cold, it seems that there are ice balls flowing in the bones and blood."

Ning Yuanhou held her hand tightly: "The sky will be sunny. Spring will come back after the snow melts."

Although the Harz people were brave and good at fighting when they were young, because they wandered by the Blackwater River for a long time, their ancestors suffered from incurable cold, and many members of the clan died in their youth.Huilanwu is no exception. Although she was once a "blue-eyed Rakshasa" who frightened the frontier soldiers, now she has to linger on the sick bed.

Hui Lanwu also closed his eyes, Ning Yuanhou's other hand trembled violently, he took a porcelain bottle from the small table beside the bed, and poured out a chestnut pill from it.He gently put Lan Wuye's hand into the thick bag, ground the pill into powder in the mortar, poured it into the hot soup, brought it to her mouth, and said softly:

"Ah Ren, drink some. Earlier on my father's birthday banquet, two seniors from the Valley of Ten Thousand Medicines came to us and gave us two pills, saying that they were the Renyang Wangqi pills made there, which can relieve the body's cold symptoms. Although it cannot be eradicated, it is of great benefit to the body."

The woman chuckled, and slightly opened her eyes like autumn water. "Don't lie to me. I've been suffering from cold for too long, and I'm already dying. Even if you take the Repayment Pill, I'm afraid it can't teach me to suffer less."

She waved her hand, "Leave these two pills to Jinwu. He was born in Jiading since he was a child. Although he is still susceptible to wind and cold in winter, if he is more careful in the future, he will not suffer from the same cold as me." disease."

Even though he was seriously ill, Hui Lanwu's eyes were still as bright as bright pearls.She smiled sweetly, and a beautiful smile suddenly appeared on her weakened face, and she said, "Let's go, let's go! I don't want this kind of pill. For generations, our ancestors were not people who coveted life and feared death."

Ning Yuanhou lowered his eyebrows and lowered his eyes: "...But he has been looking forward to releasing paper kites with you."

Hui Lanwu also paused for a while, and was rarely tongue-tied.

The man sighed, carefully placed the porcelain bowl containing the powdered Renyang Wangqi pills in her hand, and stared at her seriously:

"Aren, let's live on. If you're not here, Jinwu has no companions...he's really the only one left."

-

In the courtyard, there is a lot of cold and snow, and the snowflakes are like flying jade butterflies, dancing in the air.The pool is covered with a thin layer of ice, and only a few bald stems of the hibiscus flowers stand naked in the mirror-like pool.

Standing under the tree, Wang Xiaoyuan was wearing a duck feather cap and a few padded jackets, wrapped all over his body like a big meat dumpling.

At this moment, he raised his head, hesitantly shouted to the tree: "Master—Master!"

The snow-covered branches and leaves trembled, and scattered icicles fell.A thin figure in brocade clothes moved slowly among the trees, it was the Golden Crow climbing to the branch.

At this time, Jinwu took off the otter cape on his body, and threw it under the tree, like a puddle of soft mud.A long hemp thread went around the branches and leaves, and hung down to Wang Xiaoyuan.Wang Xiaoyuan looked along the hemp thread, and saw a touch of bright red between the branches and leaves of the white flowers, which was a paper kite with a broken bamboo strip.

The young master couldn't stay idle before, and he flew the kite by himself before his parents came.Wang Xiaoyuan hid in the shadow of the veranda, watching his every move clearly.The Golden Crow ran here and there, putting the paper kite up crookedly, but his face was always suppressed and sad, and his eyes were so wronged that they seemed to drip water.But after a while, the branch of Begonia got caught in the twine accidentally, and the paper kite became entangled in the branch.

Wang Xiaoyuan circled his hands in an arc and shouted towards the figure on the tree: "Master, is the kite hanging on it? Don't climb, I'll help you!"

He yelled until his tongue was dry and dry, but he didn't hear the echo of the Golden Crow.The golden crow stubbornly climbed up the branch, covered with snow all over, with hoarfrost hanging from its tightly wrinkled eyebrows, like two crooked silkworms.The rough branches scratched the skin on his knees, but the young master was still struggling to crawl, reaching out to reach the kite among the trees.

"It's too high, young master, don't climb up, it's dangerous!" Wang Xiaoyuan didn't know how to persuade him, so he had to shout.

The voice of the Golden Crow came from far above the head:

"To shut up!"

Wang Xiaoyuan looked up, but felt a few drops of cold water falling down.Jin Wu lowered his head and looked at him, his mouth was tightly pursed, and the corners of his mouth seemed to be twitching uncontrollably.

"I don't want to listen to what you say!" Jinwu shouted angrily, "You little thief, liar!"

My heart seemed to be pounded sullenly.Wang Xiaoyuan put down his hand in a daze, speechless for a while.These days, although he was still staying in the Jin Mansion, he never spoke a word to Jin Wu again.They had been strangers since that night, one hiding from the other.

"Anyway, you don't want to see me, and you don't believe me. No one wants to talk to me, I can only play with myself." Jin Wu said, "You just want to ask for some money from me, and you can leave after taking it. be my friend..."

Wang Xiaoyuan shook his head in a daze.Maybe so, but he felt that it wasn't quite so.

Jinwu continued to climb up.With all his strength, he finally tore the paper kite off the branch.The sharp dead branches tore through the brightly colored paper, making a huge gash in the kite.But he held the kite in his arms as if it was a treasure, and didn't want to let go, as if his mother wouldn't leave like this.

The branches creaked and trembled in their bends, and snow fell.

Wang Xiaoyuan screamed out: "Master, be careful!"

But it was too late, and the branch broke off suddenly.The Golden Crow was stunned for a moment, then suddenly fell from the tree.In the howling wind, the small body smashed through the thin ice and fell into the frozen ice pool.