Death Princess

Behind him came the sound of hooves and footsteps.Kneeling in front of the tombstone made of several stones, Leng Tong looked up at the somewhat darkened sky, and said without looking back, "Should we go?"

Zhao Lu didn't answer, but tied the two horses aside, walked forward alone, and slowly knelt behind Leng Tong facing the tombstone.Frowning and looking at the shabby tombstone, Zhao Lu took a deep breath, kowtowed three times to it earnestly, and then rested her forehead on the ground for a long time.

Leng Tong happened to see this scene the moment she turned her head, and she was stunned.She had never thought, and never dared to imagine, that in this barren tomb where a whole village including A Niang was buried, other than herself, there would be others to worship, and someone else would worship so seriously.

Just when Leng Tong was stunned, Zhao Lu came to the monument on her knees, and placed a small object made of grass beside the tombstone.It looks like leaves, flowers, and frost, but it doesn't look like anything; it's grass-green, but for some reason, it emits a silver-white light in Leng Tong's eyes.Leng Tong rubbed his eyes, only to see that the silvery white became brighter, so bright that it covered up the green, and it became a look that Leng Tong had never seen before.

Chao Lu knelt back behind Leng Tong, took out the same thing from her sleeve, put it on her mouth and blew it.

It was a sound and melody that Leng Tong had never heard before.The sound of the grass flute is very soft and slow, as if whispering a strange language; but the sound of the grass flute spreads very far and very long, as if telling the story of the dead to all things in the mountains, the grief of the living.

Indistinctly, the silver light in front of the tombstone seems to converge into a picture. The stories and daily life in the pictures seem to bring Leng Tong back to her beautiful childhood and bring her to her mother , Back to this remote, poor but warm village.

"Aniang, wait for me." The barefooted little Lengtong ran by the river.

"Tong'er, run slowly, the ground is slippery, don't fall." The woman carrying the bamboo basket stopped, and looked at the little feet that were gradually approaching her with a smile all over her body, "Ouch." She reached out and hugged the girl who rushed into her arms.

"Mother..." The girl rubbed against her mother's arms, "Mother, Mother..." She kept calling her mother, as if she could never get enough.

"Tong'er is good, Auntie is here." The mother patted her daughter's head.

"Aniang..." the girl cried, "Tong'er misses you so much, really misses you so much...Aniang, don't go, don't go..."

"Aniang is here, here, Aniang won't go, won't go..."

It's a pity that the dead will not return, and the music will eventually stop, because time will never stop its forward steps.

The music, stopped; the light, scattered.

Leng Tong walked out of the screen and returned to this place where things have changed.She didn't turn around, but stood up straight with her head down, quickly walked around Chaolu who was putting away the grass flute, and stepped onto the horse in three steps at a time.

"Drive!" She swung her whip fiercely, hiding the tears in her eyes, and left.

Zhao Lu stood up slowly, she looked at the distant figure, moved her lips but failed to make a sound.

"Sorry." This seemed to be what she wanted to say.

Leng Tong galloped wildly on the horse, and the tears poured out mercilessly under the guidance of the wind, but she felt that she was just crying, not herself.She didn't dare to look back at the village full of happiness and pain, she could only go forward and rush forward.She moved her lips, but couldn't make any sound.

"Thank you." This seemed to be what she wanted to say.

. . .

It was completely dark when the two arrived in the city without a word.

"The song just now, and the grass flute you put in front of my aunt's tomb..." It was Leng Tong who broke the silence.

"It was originally a kind of flower, a kind of flower that could be played, but I just made grass into its shape. These are things from my hometown, a song from my hometown, a song that can let the dead rest in peace; The flowers in my hometown," Zhao Lu's gaze drifted far away, as if she had drifted away from any place Leng Tong knew, "the flowers that only bloom in my hometown."

"Hometown? Your hometown?"

"Well, my hometown." Zhaolu's eyes still lingered in the endless distance, "It's a hometown that is far away, but very close. It is beautiful there, with sweet mountain springs, and bamboo forests that can't be seen. The silver flute flowers that blow. The children there like to play by the mountain spring, chase in the bamboo forest, and like to play the silver flute flowers.”

"That……"

"But I have never been there," Zhao Lu knew what Leng Tong wanted to ask, her tone was very relaxed, she smiled, but she smiled a little lonely, "I grew up in Jianzong. The story of that place , I always listened to my father, but my father never went, and my father also listened to my father's father. But my father's father, my grandfather... many years ago... left gone."

"Father said that my grandfather has been there, but it is no longer what it is in the story. There is no one there, everyone has left, some moved by themselves, and some..."

Zhao Lu wanted to say something more, but an object that fell directly into her arms from a high altitude interrupted her. "Chestnut?!" She looked up at the place where Chestnut jumped, "Why did you follow?"

Looking at the cat, Leng Tong recalled what happened when she first met Liu Lu.Leng Tong was rare, and smiled.

"Huh? What are you kidding?"

"Well, it's nothing." Leng Tong put away her smile, "At first I thought you were just a stupid guard, but now it seems that you are also a person with a story."

Zhao Lu rolled her eyes undisguisedly, did not answer, but looked at the window where Chestnut jumped out and suggested: "It's getting late, let's rest at this inn tonight."

Leng Tong nodded.

. . .

Half an hour later, Chestnut successfully snatched the last piece of fish from Chaolu's bowl into his mouth.In the eyes of Leng Tong who was watching the show with his chin propped, Zhao Lu resentfully retracted the chopsticks that were about to hit Chestnut's head, and drank the last drop of wine in the glass sullenly.

"Pfft," Leng Tong laughed again, "You and this... Chestnut have a very good relationship."

Looking at Leng Tong's second smile today, Zhao Lu felt a little joy in her heart for some reason, "Well, Chestnut's family is extremely long-lived among cats, and their family has a deep relationship with ours. I brought it up. Don't look at its current appearance, it's actually quite unfamiliar, and it only eats what A Xue and I give it on weekdays."

"Ash?"

"Ah, Axue is the girl who boiled the medicine for you, my cousin." The young master of Xueming Valley, Han Shuangxue.Of course, it is impossible for Zhao Lu to say this.

"Oh? So that's where your home is?"

"Yes and no," Zhao Lu said, knowing that Leng Tong was clichéd, "I spend most of my time in Jianzong. If I have to say it, Jianzong is my home, and there are only some people there. Courtyard."

"Taking Jianzong as home." Leng Tong repeated this sentence meaningfully, but Zhao Lu didn't care about Leng Tong's meaning.

Suddenly, a commotion from outside the window attracted the attention of the two.

A few men who looked like guys knocked a teenage girl in ragged clothes, yellow and thin, to the ground. The guys cursed at the girl, and some even started punching and kicking, but the daughter was holding on to her arms tightly. The package in the bag, let them beat and scold without saying a word.It seems that the girl stole something from the store.

The scene in front of her brought back some bad memories of Leng Tong, she involuntarily pointed the chopsticks in the direction of those hands-on guys, but in the next moment, she stopped the movement of her right hand with her empty left hand.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Zhao Lu saw all of this.

"Huh?" Leng Tong tried her best to hide it.

"Aren't you going to help that child?" Zhao Lu didn't intend to let Leng Tong be fooled, "The chopsticks are standing up, why didn't you do anything?"

Hearing this, Leng Tong took a deep breath and put down his chopsticks, "Because I am not your righteous way of life, a chivalrous hero, and should not appear on someone like me."

Hearing Leng Tong's answer, Zhao Lu shook her head and sighed, "Why do you say that about yourself? You don't do it, isn't it because you know that doing it will only make the child's situation more difficult in the future. A ten-year-old It is not easy for a child to wander alone in this river and lake. Even if you use force to relieve her today, as long as she still has no destination, what happened today will happen day by day. Bullying."

Leng Tong was a little surprised.

Jianghu people always like to help each other when they see injustice, she knows this, but at the same time, she has also understood a truth from her own experience, that is: stealing is wrong, and being beaten is justified, because there is no one to rely on and no money It is a sin.Today's action may be able to use force to coerce the buddy to spare the beggar, but tomorrow, they will only intensify their efforts to make up for the loss on her.What's even more sad is that wealth is life for a businessman, and these seemingly hateful fellows are only trying to save their own lives.

The reason why Leng Tong understands this is because she has lived like that beggar, but she never thought that the pampered Liu Lu who grew up with the Young Sect Master in Jianzong would say these words.

"However, having said that," Zhao Lu changed the topic, "force is often not the solution to problems, besides, today is different from the past, the robe you are wearing now is the uniform of a direct disciple of the Sword Sect, that is to say, you Now it's not the assassin of the Dark Pavilion, but a disciple of the Sword Sect, a direct disciple."

Jianzong... a direct disciple?Under the mask, Leng Tong's eyes flickered.But she quickly understood what Zhao Lu meant and calmed down.

The next moment, Leng Tong picked up the long sword at the corner of the table with one hand, picked it up on Chao Lu's belt, caught the picked thing, and jumped directly from the window on the second floor without saying a word.

"Hey! That's my purse!!" Chao Lu's roar echoed behind her, but she ignored it and ran towards the beggar. While running, the corners of her lips curled up quietly.

Looking at the back of Leng Tong rushing forward, Zhao Lu also propped her chin and smiled.

It's interesting to see the injustice on the road...the killer who draws his sword to help.

The author has something to say:

Is it...a candy?You have to hurry up and eat it.