Ambush from all sides

March in the south of the Yangtze River, like every year in the past, is still drizzly.

Just after the Qingming Festival, Huangshan's Houkui is about to go on the market.A few days ago, many tea merchants sent people to the villages and towns at the foot of Huangshan to collect tea as in previous years, but the villagers told them that all the top-grade new tea had been taken away by Qingyu Tea House in Suzhou Prefecture, and that the boss had signed a contract with them The book paid a deposit, and the tea leaves for the next five years will be given to them.

The Qingyu Tea House in Suzhou Prefecture—the tea merchants who rushed to nothing heard this name, but at the same time they gritted their teeth but felt helpless.The owner of this Qingyu Tea House is shrewd and capable, with a tricky vision, and his business has grown bigger and bigger in the past few years.Not only the tea shop, but also restaurants, pawn shops, antique shops, cloth spinning, spice shops under his name... There is almost no industry that he does not set foot in, and what is annoying is that every shop he runs is booming, making his colleagues They all have itchy teeth and red eyes.

The boss is said to be a handsome man, very young, a golden bachelor.The ladies and matchmakers of so many families in Suzhou and Hangzhou are staring and looking forward to it, and even some young masters miss him, it can be said that peach blossoms are blooming.

It seems to say that this person has a great background.The younger brother is the original Nan Xia Zhan Zhao, who is now the guard Zhan of Kaifeng Mansion, and his amazing parents, and an even more amazing grandfather...

So some people sighed, there are some people in this world, just listening to it can make people itch with envy, and they take all the good things in the world.

On the official road from Suzhou Mansion to Changzhou Mansion, a group of simple carriages walked unhurriedly in the drizzle.The wheels rolled out two wheel marks on the slightly wet gravel road, creaking and bone-like.

The carriage in the middle of the convoy was a little more handsome than the others, with a new ochre-colored paint and plain tassels, and it was drawn by two bay horses.A young man with bushy eyebrows and big eyes and a bright little girl sat on the driver's seat. The two talked a few words from time to time, but it was the little girl who said the words, and the man just responded casually.

After a while, a slender white hand stretched out from the carriage, holding a jade cigarette pouch to lift up the door curtain.Then, a gentle and melodious, low-pitched voice with a little hoarseness floated out: "Yuke, should we arrive at the Shili Pavilion outside the city?"

The little girl named Yuke turned her head and answered crisply: "Hurry up! Young master, what are you in a hurry for?"

Hearing this, the people in the carriage slowly withdrew their hands, and a gleam or two of light flashed from the tobacco pot: "No hurry, go slowly, slow down." The last few words were faint, almost inaudible, As if calculating something.

The girl Yuke outside and the young man driving the car looked at each other inexplicably, then shrugged in unison, tightening the reins slightly.

The current young master of the Zhan family - Zhan Hao leaned leisurely in the carriage, with a jade cigarette holder in his bright red lips, took a deep breath of the cigarette, and then squinted his eyes and let it out slowly.The smoke brushed over his face and gradually diffused into the carriage. Zhan Hao half-raised his eyelids, squinted at the carriage that was already filled with white smoke, and the corners of his mouth slightly curled up.He stretched out his hand to hang the curtain of the carriage window, and with a wave of his sleeve, the white smoke scattered out.

It's still raining outside.Zhan Hao quietly looked at the green trees on both sides of the road that kept receding back, frowned and yawned lazily.

He had just returned from Suzhou Mansion, and the tea leaves collected in Mount Huangshan were handed over to the shopkeeper of the tea house, processed through a few special procedures, and would be ready for sale in a few days.Originally, it was not his turn to collect the tea leaves, but he wanted to go to Huangshan to relax, so he went with his subordinates.

The smoky Huangshan Mountain is indeed quite scenic.Zhan Hao walked up the path slowly, and when he reached a high place, the clouds and mists were all under his feet.He should have sighed for the great rivers and mountains of the Great Song Dynasty, but seeing the beautiful scenery in his eyes, he was still not very happy in his heart.

Day after day, repeating the monotonous life.

It seems that since the second half of last year, his life has been in such a state, flat, calm, and turbulent.This makes Zhan Hao can't help but start to miss the days when he arranged for that stupid young master Long Yiling - the mission that has been rooted in his heart since he can remember.

But now, it's over.

It is very consistent with every goal and every step he envisioned, but the process is a little faster.He actually underestimated Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, those two were indeed rare talents in the world.

Perhaps it was because of thinking of his brother who he always loved, Zhan Hao showed a slightly happy expression on his face.He squinted his eyes and looked out of the window, his long thick eyelashes concealed the small mole under his left eye, and the lingering smoke made his face more ethereal.

Zhan Hao has always been scheming.

In the previous 28 years, his whole life, all his heart and soul, were busy trying to settle the entangled matters of his ancestors.There is really no need to continue the entanglement and enmity of the past, it will be broken in his generation.It is really a rare blessing to be an ordinary person who does not know the past.

But now that he was living the life he wanted, he felt like something was missing—lost all his opponents, or rather, all his toys in an instant.

Zhan Hao likes to watch others step by step approaching the traps he has set, the faint excitement is like a spider slowly crawling towards the prey that is trapped in the net but still struggling.Something like a moth, no matter how hard it struggles, the mesh may be broken, but sooner or later it will die.As for those rivals in business, for Zhan Hao, the struggle is similar to that of mosquitoes, one will die and the other will stick.

Can't be an exception, huh?Can't there be a strong opponent who can add a little bit of fun to his lifeless life waiting to die, even if it just makes him feel a little overjoyed?

But no.The things in front of me are just repeating, day after day.

Isn't that what life is like.When Zhan Hao realized this, a mocking smile appeared on his face, he didn't know if he was laughing at himself or others.

When a person reaches a certain age, he will no longer meet new people or new things.Because all strange appearances can find similar traces in the past world, and everything is just a repetition of the past.People with similar interests, repeated street scenes, recurring pictures... People are always doing the same action and doing the same thing thousands of times, imitating others, or being imitated by others.

It's boring.

There are still 32 years... a full 32 years.

Thinking that he still has so many years left and doesn't know how to squander them, Zhan Hao can't help but feel a long-lost feeling of disappointment.

Of course, this kind of emotion was quite new to Zhan Hao at first.So he would keep thinking about this matter when he was bored, thinking about what he should do for the rest of his "long" life.But after thinking too much, this sense of loss gradually disappeared, and it became another boring thing.

Life is suffering—under the ravages of boring life, Zhan Hao was forced to agree with this sentence.

Back at his hometown in Changzhou, the first thing Zhan Hao did was to take a bath.The bathing pool at home is very large, and every time I take a bath, I put a large pool of water in it. The white steam is so comfortable that people don't want to come out.

Zhan Zhao used to come back from the Tianmo Palace for the holidays when he was a child, and he would say it was a waste when he saw so much water.But later I found that I could play and have fun in it, so I enjoyed it happily.

My old lady Yin Lanci is a hedonist and advocates drinking tonight and getting drunk tonight.Zhan Hao was adopted by them, not her and Zhan Tianxing's child, and he still inherited the memory of his predecessors, but this temperament has been learned by ten percent.Although outsiders see Zhan Hao as a low-key and restrained master, only he himself knows that his food and clothing are all carefully selected.

He did the same to his servants, and it was even more serious to his family members.When Zhan Zhao was at home, what clothes to wear, what materials to eat, what materials to use...all were taken care of by Zhan Hao himself.

In the past, he loved Zhan Zhao and his parents who grew older but more immature. Zhan Hao felt that he enjoyed it.But now, Zhan Zhao was taken over by Bai Wuye, who loves cats more than life, and his impatient parents also ran to play in various places.Sometimes when Zhan Hao is soaking in the pool alone, he will feel that the world is empty for no reason, and the bath room he is in seems to be a reed swarm with deep dew and fog in the morning. Only one or two birdsong reminds him that he is still alive present world.

Then Zhan Hao would want to laugh - in the past, he never felt that he was a person who was easily lonely.

Sure enough, when people are free, they will think about boring things.

Lie on the big bed and rest all afternoon.Putting his hands on the small table in the middle, he played with three Yuhua stones the size of quail eggs in his palms, and he smoked three pots of cigarettes in a row, puffing out his mouth.

When the third pot of cigarettes was almost finished, the white mandarin duck-eyed cat who always came home to eat a meal slipped in.Zhan Hao propped his head up, quietly watching it walk to the bedside.The cat's copper-yellow and lake-blue eyes met, it meowed softly, and the whiskers on its mouth moved.

With a slight smile in his eyes, Zhan Hao stretched out his hand to tickle it, and the cat jumped onto the bed.The little paws covered with wet mud stamped stains on the soft mattress, and without any mistake, they leaned over to rub Zhan Hao's chin.

Zhan Hao narrowed his eyes, scratched its little chin lazily with his fingers, and said in a low voice: "Little bastard, you dirty my bed, where's your girlfriend?"

The white cat looked at him with its strange and beautiful eyes, tilted its head and let out a "meow".

Zhan Hao smiled, took a puff of cigarette with gentle complexion, stroked the cat's head with his hand, and sprayed it directly at the little pink nose for a while.The cat "meowed" twice in a frenzy, struggling to run away, but Zhan Hao grabbed its front paws and wouldn't let go.

Seeing its aggrieved and sad look, Zhan Hao curled his lips with a half-smile.

He was bullying the cat viciously. Yuke walked in with a plate at the door. Seeing the cat on the bed, she yelled "Ah" first, and then rushed over with a fierce face and shouted: "You dirty thief!" Cat, go!" The cat was so frightened that its tail exploded, Zhan Hao let go of his hand in time, and the cat quickly jumped out of the bed and ran out.

Yuke put the tea and snacks on the table, glared at Zhanhao angrily, and said, "Young master, that cat is so dirty, you keep calling it to the bed!" The girl shouted again: "Oh! Look, young master, the quilt I just asked someone to dry yesterday is dirty again!"

Zhan Hao blinked lazily, and said while puffing: "If it's dirty, just wash it."

Seeing his indifferent attitude, Yuke pouted her lips unhappily.Seeing the cigarette stick in his hand that had hardly been let go for a while, he felt even more angry, and said, "Master, don't keep smoking too much, you will get sick if you continue like this!"

"Then get sick." Zhan Hao sat up leisurely, poured himself a cup of tea and drank it down, then looked at Yuke's frowning brows, stretched out a finger to poke gently, and smiled gently Said: "Anyway, someone will take care of you when you are sick."

Looking at his handsome and soft face, Yu Ke felt so angry, she flew away.Two red clouds floated on the little girl's face, and her fingers twitched.She bit her lip, looked dodgingly at the light-colored mole under the corner of her young master's eye, and said shyly, "Master, how about I give you my concubine..."

Zhan Hao really laughed this time.He exhaled a wisp of white smoke, squinted his eyes and said with a smile, "Yuke, although it's a girl's house, you can't be so uninterested."

Yuke raised her face with shining eyes, tried her best to suppress the excitement and excitement in her heart, and said, "Then, then I will be the main wife!"

After hearing this, Zhan Hao covered his face and turned his head away, laughing until his shoulders trembled.After laughing enough, he coughed in a low voice, opened his lips and squeezed the cigarette holder, and then said in a rustling voice: "Well, it's not good to be too ambitious."

"Ah, young master, you are too much! You are teasing me again!" Yu Ke pouted and acted like a baby with him, Zhan Hao glanced at her, got off the bed with a smile and stood up, reached out to touch her head, and said, "What about me, Don't even think about it, in two years, I will find you a good family."

When Yuke heard this, she gave up. She put her arms around his arm and yelled, "No! If you don't marry, don't marry. It's fine for me to be a maid! I, I won't marry, and I will be with the young master for the rest of my life!"

These few words were loud and passionate.Zhan Hao didn't look at her, but still smiled at the corner of his mouth, looking at the pattering rain outside the door.

Yuke raised her head reluctantly, looking at his graceful chin and bright red lips, which were exhaling smoke.

"A lifetime... a lifetime is too long, one or two years is enough."

Zhan Hao pulled his hand out of her embrace without a trace, and walked out slowly.Yu Ke stared at the complicated and hidden patterns on his sleeves with her mouth squinted, and suddenly felt very wronged.

"Sooner or later, you will meet someone you like, become his wife, and have children..."

Yu Ke followed unwillingly, and asked anxiously from behind: "Then, what about you, young master?"

"Me?" Zhan Hao raised his eyebrows and turned to look at her in surprise, then smiled and looked at the long corridor ahead, and continued walking forward.

"I'm still me, doing business, making money, buying a house, eating, smoking, and sleeping."

In this way, the remaining 32 years have passed.

Changzhou has the best brothel in Suzhou and Hangzhou, Yuehualou.

The owner of Yuehua Building, Gu Yuehua, was originally from the capital city. Later, when he came to Suzhou and Hangzhou and saw the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, he resolutely moved Yuehua Building here.Coincidentally, when I first came here, the head of the Zhan family was Zhan Tianxing, and Gu Yuehua fell in love with him at first sight, and even felt that Changzhou was a place with outstanding people, so Yuehua Building settled in Changzhou.Originally, I was looking forward to when Zhan Tianxing would come to have fun, and the two of them would have a dewy marriage, but I didn't expect that he already had a wife and was still a very powerful character, so his thoughts were let go.

But unexpectedly, more than ten years later, Zhan Tianxing's eldest son would come to visit him frequently.

The boss of the Zhan family has always been very famous in Changzhou. He used to go to Yuehualou for drinks with his business partners, but he never ordered girls or young ladies.I don't know what happened this year, but I went in and out of Yuehua Tower frequently, and every time I nodded directly to Miss Wanshu's name, which made the other sisters jealous.

Wan Shu, the headliner of Yuehua Building, is a singing and dancing prostitute, that is, the master who performs art but not herself.Gu Yuehua originally wanted to train her to be the treasure of the town building, but she did not expect to be easily acquired by Zhan Hao.Gu Yuehua was still puzzled, why did the young master of the Zhan family suddenly change his temper?

Gu Yuehua went to ask Wan Shu, but Wan Shu just laughed, acted like a baby to her, and said oh mom, just leave it alone.Mr. Zhan is lavish and gentle, such kind of benefactor is the best, you still don't want to.Gu Yuehua thought about it and thought it was the same, so she didn't study it any more.

But in fact, every time Zhan Hao goes to Wan Shu's room, he doesn't do anything, just talk to her.

Yuehua Building is very large, occupying a large area, the main building, side buildings, corridors, and several quiet small courtyards.Wan Shu occupies the largest yard at the back, where many flowers and trees are planted.Zhan Hao walked slowly on the wooden stairs, Wan Shu fiddled with the pipa in the room on the second floor, and the quiet voice floated out faintly.

With quiet footsteps, Zhan Hao stood in the corridor on the second floor, slowly exhaling the smoke from his mouth.

The shredded tobacco in the tobacco pot is flowing with flames.The blood cinnabar produced in Dali has a strong smell and a choking aroma.Today Yu Ke ran to say that there is only the last small bag of blood cinnabar left, why not change it to Huang Yunlong tomorrow?

Zhan Hao looked down at the floor under his feet, the dark red thick and mottled paint, the original wood grain could be vaguely seen.Soft footsteps came from ahead, and a slow female voice said, "Since you are here, why don't you come in?"

Zhan Hao raised his head, half-closed his eyes and looked at the elegant and generous Wan Shu in front of him, with a faint smile on his face: "When I hear the music, I'm afraid that the beauty's interest will be offended by the abruptness."

Wan Shu walked up to him, stretched out her hand softly to hold him towards the room, and said, "I'm only interested when you're here, why are you so abrupt?"

Zhan Hao followed behind her, and when he lowered his eyes, he could see the complicated braids and jewelry behind her head.Wan Shu is neither strong nor weak, neither happy nor worried, and speaks and behaves appropriately, so it is very easy to get along with.

So I often find her to drink and chat.

However, when it comes to chatting, it's just a word or two occasionally.

Wan Shu was stroking the strings in her hand, raising her eyes from time to time to look at Zhan Hao who was sitting opposite.Zhan Hao is cool and indifferent, and when I see him on a daily basis, looking at his graceful appearance, I really can't imagine that he would actually sit still in private.Well, now I'm leaning over, leaning my elbows on the table, resting my chin on my palm, and muttering silently with my face turned sideways.

Mr. Zhan used to not smoke.Then I didn't see each other for a year, and when I came back, I couldn't leave the cigarette stick.

The shaft is made of Kunshan smoky sapphire, the mouth of the bronze sleeve, and the hanging pouch is tattooed with some kind of fancy gold thread pattern.Wan Shu followed his lips loosely holding the cigarette holder, saw his straight and moist nose bridge, and saw his bewildered eyes.

People in Changzhou once said that the eldest son of the Zhan family, the current head of the Zhan family, Zhan Hao, can never open his eyes, and will always look half-lidded.Even if he looks up at you occasionally, only more than half of his eyeballs are exposed, and he can never see him fully open his eyes.

There was never any way of guessing what he was thinking.

Wan Shu lowered her eyes in silence, then brought them back.She knew that when men were silent, unless they wanted to speak, women would never ask questions.So he could only play the piano quietly, waiting for him to speak.

After a long time, Zhan Hao finally spoke.He still maintained that casual attitude, and said slowly: "Miss Wanshu, what do you do when you have nothing to do on weekdays?"

Wan Shu stopped the movements of her fingers, folded her hands on her knees, and answered with downcast eyes, "It's just playing the piano and writing. When I'm interested, I'll draw two pictures and embroider a handkerchief."

Zhan Hao looked at the gilded marigold pattern on the corner of the table, and asked again: "Doing these things all the time, don't you feel tired?"

"Of course it will be boring." Wan Shu lowered her eyes quietly, with a faint self-deprecating smile on her face: "Wan Shu is actually very envious of you men, who can inherit the family business and make a big difference. It's not like us women, The greatest achievement is to be a husband and a child, if you fall into prostitution like me, you will never be able to recover."

After hearing this, Zhan Hao straightened up, and his eyes finally fell on Wan Shu's face.Wan Shu only applied a thin layer of powder, and her face was haggard, but she was still beautiful.Zhan Hao looked at her drooping eyelids and her eyelashes like a small fan, and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke from his mouth.

...still boring.

No matter how beautiful the face is, you will get tired of looking at it, and no matter how well-behaved and sensible people are, they will not be able to endure it for a long time.Exquisite eyebrow and eye makeup, after all, can't match the exquisite gaze again and again.

Zhan Hao had expected that this would be a woman of some interest, but now it seems that he was wrong.

Wan Shu quietly accepted his gaze, neither startled nor afraid.She knew what the men came to her for, Zhan Hao didn't want her talent, she didn't want her body, so he definitely hoped to find something else in her, although she didn't know what Zhan Hao wanted now. What.

Wan Shu raised her eyes and met Zhan Hao's unclear gaze.She smiled and said, "Young Master Zhan, what answer do you want to find from Wan Shu?"

Zhan Hao raised the left corner of his mouth, lowered his head, a strand of hair fell to his cheek.With a cigarette holder in his mouth, he said vaguely: "It's nothing, just chatting with you to pass the time."

Zhan Hao sat with Wan Shu for an hour.I wanted to sit for a while longer and listen to the music, but there were faint footsteps downstairs.

Wan Shu didn't hear it at first, but Zhan Hao heard it clearly.Two people, with light footsteps but vain, are not martial arts practitioners.

When the two of them went up to the second floor, Wan Shu heard their voices.The two men vaguely heard saying something like "Sister Wanshu doesn't pick up guests", "Does she only play the piano and dance?"

Zhan Hao looked at Wan Shu who had a hint of surprise in his eyes, and said, "Is it easy to come up to your building?"

Wan Shu said nothing, just glanced at her little maid Chunfang.Chunfang understood, turned and walked towards the door.At the same time as the door opened, the two men also walked to the door.

Wan Shu raised her eyes and saw Qian Zhong, the most popular young lady in Yuehua Tower, and a coquettish young master who looked a little familiar.

When the young master saw Zhan Hao sitting inside with his back to them, he froze for a moment.Zhan Hao turned his head slowly, and when the man saw him, his eyes widened immediately, and he shouted angrily, "Zhan Hao?! Why are you!"

Smiling, Zhan Hao held up his cigarette stick to him, and said casually, "Mr. Yan is really in a good mood, but Miss Wanshu has to accompany me tonight, and if you want to have a good time with her, I'm afraid it won't be until tomorrow. "

That Mr. Yan's face turned blue and white with anger.Seeing Wan Shu who was sitting quietly inside with no expression on his face, and Zhan Hao who was smiling but not smiling, he turned his face and gave Qian Zhong a hard look, and cursed loudly: "Didn't you say that Wan Shu has no guests? what's going on?!"

Qian Zhong leaned against the door frame and shrugged nonchalantly, and said, "How do I know, Sister Wan Shu's guests never passed my hand. You said you want to hear the best song, so I'll bring you here."

Young Master Yan was so angry with him, he turned his face and gave Zhan Hao a hard look, then flung his sleeves and left.Enke left, but that Qianzhong was still leaning against the door frame, his eyes painted with dark purple eyeliner stared straight at Zhan Hao, and his thin lips evoked a charming smile at him.

Zhan Hao also slightly bent the corners of his mouth.

"Young Master Zhan..." Qian Zhong lowered his voice and called him, the intention of seduction couldn't be more obvious.He is slender and handsome, if he is not in this place of fireworks, he looks a bit like a son of a rich family: "Mom gave me a jar of good wine a few days ago, do you want to go to my place to taste it?"

Zhan Hao shook his head with a smile, and said: "Thank you beauty for your face, but unfortunately Zhan is too weak to drink today, let's go another day."

Qianzhong smiled with charming eyes, tilted his head and neck seductively, and said: "Then let's talk about it, I will leave the best glass of wine to the young master." After speaking, he looked up. Chin walked away triumphantly.Wan Shu quietly watched his shadow move outside the window until it was no longer visible, then she covered her mouth and smiled.

"Master Zhan is in our Yuehua Building, so many people miss him."

Zhan Hao didn't say a word, just lowered his head and poured out the burnt shredded tobacco in the cigarette pot, opened the cigarette pouch and replaced it with a new one.Wan Shu came over, smiled and lit a cigarette for him, knelt down in front of him and said, "How can Wan Shu be able to occupy the young master all the time?"

Zhan Hao squinted his eyes, took a puff of cigarette quietly, and said, "Knowing what to say and what not to say is the greatest virtue of a woman. Miss Wan Shu is smart and lovely, and she deserves the top spot. The kid just now, It won't be comparable in another three to five years."

Wan Shu stared at him fixedly, then leaned over and kissed him lightly on the face, and said, "Mr. Zhan likes it, so Wan Shu will be happy."

Looking into her gentle eyes, Zhan Hao slowly showed a smile on his face.He reached out and touched Wan Shu's face, then stood up and straightened his clothes, and said, "I'm going back, I'll come to you in two days." Wan Shu followed him, smiled and sent him to the side of the stairs, saying : "It just rained, and the sky is dark and slippery. Master Zhan, be careful when you go back."

As Zhan Hao walked downstairs, he waved his palm with his back to her.

When walking back, Zhan Hao lowered his eyes, and Wan Shu's eyes kept shaking in his mind.

Much like Zhan Zhao.Zhan Zhao's eyes are beautiful, big and round, cat-like.Wan Shu's eyes, with very deep eyelids, look very gentle.

——Although the emotion in the eyes is wrong, the appearance is very similar.

Zhan Zhao's temperament is black and sweet, and he would never show such a gentle expression on weekdays.Even in front of his favorite Bai Yutang, he was restless.Maybe when he gets older, he can become gentler and calmer.

But thinking about it, it seems unlikely.That kind of expression, rather, often appears on Bai Yutang's face, when Bai Yutang looks at Zhao Zhao.

It was the look in the eyes of the lover, the look of pity.

Walking slowly in the courtyard downstairs of Wan Shu, Zhan Hao raised his eyebrows inadvertently while smoking a cigarette.He has already discovered that Wan Shu's expectations of him seem to be too much, which is not a good sign.Maybe he can give a certain response, but that is just behavior and has nothing to do with feelings.

He no longer knew what love was like.

What keeps people trapped in this world is nothing more than friends, relatives, and lovers.But when all the relatives he has are no longer dependent on him, and the few friends he has have more important people, he becomes a loner without a lover.It's not that he doesn't care, Zhan Hao has never been afraid of loneliness.However, without the company of someone you like, people will not know how to spend the next time.

There is always an excuse in life to keep yourself from stopping.

He already knew where his limit was. Thirty-two years, the long days when he had to have something to do, and he couldn't kill himself—he wasn't such a coward.Zhan Hao felt that he would be able to find something that would make him feel fulfilled, make him feel nostalgic, feel that he must do it, and do it with fun.

A thing that is interesting enough but difficult to accomplish, or—meeting someone who makes you fall in love.

After leaving the Yuehua Building, Zhan Hao walked back home along the street in a leisurely manner.Yuehua Building is not far from the exhibition house, so there is no need to ride a horse or take a car.

There were very few pedestrians on the street at night, the rain had stopped during the day, and a little rainwater accumulated on the bluestone slabs on the ground.

Zhan Hao walked forward slowly, the street was quiet and there were few pedestrians.He thought he would have to walk alone all the way, but after walking for a long time, he saw a figure inadvertently at the intersection of the road leading to the stables in the backyard on the edge of Yuehua Building.

The man was dressed in black, holding a long and thin knife in his hand, leaning quietly against the eaves, with a tall horse standing half a foot beside him.

The other party heard his footsteps, so he raised his head and looked at Zhan Hao expressionlessly.

By the moonlight, Zhan Hao could see the cold and pale right half of his face.Slender eyebrows and eyes, narrow nose bridge, tightly pursed lips.On the left half of his face, he wears a mottled mask.

Acquaintances, dead leaves.

Zhan Hao looked at him and the horse beside him thoughtfully.He had seen that horse before. It was a white horse with two purple tassels hanging on the saddle—it was Yan Qi's horse.Withered Ye stood beside the horse, probably becoming Yan Qi's retainer.

Zhan Hao folded his arms, took a puff of cigarette unhurriedly, and then slowly walked over.Dead Leaf watched him approaching quietly, and stood in front of her, her tall figure with the moonlight behind her back, which made people feel an inexplicable sense of oppression.

Withered Leaf involuntarily stood up straight and frowned.

Zhan Hao squinted his eyes and gave him a faint smile, "Why, did you take Yan Qi's job?"

Staring at the faint sparks in his cigarette pot, Dead Leaf let out a nonchalant "hum".

Looking at his thinner face, Zhan Hao raised his eyebrows whether he was happy or surprised: "Will Yan Qi give you food?"

Withered Leaf tilted her head and said nothing.

Glancing at the gate of Yuehua Building where people come and go, Zhan Hao turned his head to stare at the dead leaves, and said, "Your master probably won't come out for a while. Follow him, who will you help him kill?"

Withered Ye raised her chin, thought for a while, then narrowed her eyes firmly, and said, "You know him, Qu Xiaolian, the boss of the Qu family."

When Zhan Hao heard this, he immediately burst out laughing, and said, "He is my friend. Yan Qi told you to kill him, how much will he give you?"

Dead Leaves stared at him without speaking.

Zhan Hao leisurely stood beside him, with a cigarette holder in his mouth, and said: "How much money he gives you, I'll give you double the money. If he pays you to follow him, why don't I pay you more, you come here." Be my bodyguard?"

Hearing his words, Withered Leaf let out a cool "hum" in his throat, and said, "You need me to protect you? Zhan Hao, haven't you already learned all the Kung Fu of the Ultimate Bliss Gate from the Eldest Young Master?"

Zhan Hao laughed lightly, and said, "Withered Ye, Yan Qi is not an easy person to dismiss. What I mean by this is that you follow him, you might as well follow me. At least I won't treat you badly, and I won't call you killing people everywhere."

Withered Leaf turned her head away from him, and said coldly, "What else can I do if I don't kill someone."

Zhan Hao smiled and lowered his face, but didn't answer.After a while he raised his head, the expression on his face was thoughtful, and he didn't know what he was planning.Dead Leaf involuntarily stared at his treacherous eyes, becoming more vigilant in her heart.Zhan Hao exhaled a puff of smoke, and the smoke blocked the sight of the dead leaves for a while.After a long while, he turned around and walked away slowly, only the voice floated over calmly.

"...I don't know what I can do, why don't we discuss it together?"

The tall figure slowly walked away, gradually disappearing into the night.Dead Leaf stared at the direction where he disappeared without saying a word, and then turned her head back after a while, staring at the bluestone slab under her feet.Dazed, don't know what to think.