Snake Tale

Seeing the bewitching snake pattern, Shen Yuzhu felt a sudden sting on the tip of his heart, and stood up in panic, at a loss, only a picture flashed in his mind: what is curled up in the dark and The warm water is slightly rippling with Wubo...

How strange!Shen Yuzhu thought to himself: "What's going on here?" However, the moist, warm, and greasy sensation and memory were so vivid, and the tip of his nose, which had lost his sense of smell, even caught a musky scent wrapped in a fishy smell.He shuddered, and turned to look at Luo Yi, only to find that he was curled up on the ground, half of his face covered by his black hair, and he was so overwhelmed by the medicine that he passed out.

Shen Yuzhu sniffed his breath, opened his eyes and looked at him, clapped his hands and called the waiting soldiers to come in, and ordered them to put Luo Yi in iron shackles and take him to the darkroom for safekeeping.The soldiers responded in unison, one after the other was about to drag people out, Shen Yuzhu looked at him with his hands behind his back, suddenly his heart moved, and he said: "Wait a minute."

He pointed to Luo Yi's fading monster tattoo, hesitantly said: "Can't you see it?"

Everyone looked at each other in dismay, and a smart man said "Oh!", picked up the scattered clothes on the ground, put them on Luo Yi respectfully, and smiled at him meaningfully: "Mr. Didn't see it!"

Shen Yuzhu: "..."

He waved them back, and slowly paced around the room meditating.It was once abandoned as he became a slave, and later occupied by Zheng Su's reckless and rough soldiers, and has never been carefully repaired.He brushed off a layer of cobweb dust on the bookshelf, rummaged through a tube of yarrow, and speculated in vain.The main hexagram is Zhen, and the guest hexagram is Kan, which is the second line of the Tun hexagram*.

"Bandits, marriage, a woman's chastity is not a word, ten years is a word." Shen Yuzhu recited the hexagram silently, thought for a while, and laughed to himself: "'Bandits, marriage' is not here to rob, but to propose marriage ——It’s such a good thing!”

There was a sudden rumbling of spring thunder outside the window, and the rain that had been bred for half a day finally fell.This is the start of yang qi and the start of snake ants, isn't it?Suddenly a gust of wind blew in, and with a soft "pop", an unplaced letter fell from the inside of the bookshelf.

Shen Yuzhu leaned over to pick it up, and when he saw the swallow and bird totem on the clay seal, he couldn't help being stunned.When living in seclusion in Jiangdu, in order to avoid the endless stream of boring entertainment, Shen Yuzhu ordered the servants to reject all the gifts and letters from the visitors, and there was nowhere to return them later, so they had to roughly gather them in one place and turn a blind eye.This letter is obviously one of them.

Shen Yuzhu brushed away the heavy dust, unwrapped the wax seal, and finally began to read the letter that was three years late.If he hadn't been very familiar with this handwriting, he couldn't believe that this earnest and subtle, almost begging speech was written by Luo Yi himself.Shen Yuzhuzai carefully searched the dusty bookshelf, and found dozens of letters sealed with the same totem.

He was puzzled, held the letter in a daze for a while, and thought: "Since he has such intentions, why did he do such diametrically opposed things later?"

Shen Yuzhu was contemplating himself, when he suddenly heard a commotion in front of the hall, he guessed it was Zheng Su who returned from court.Shen Yuzhu was really not interested in the matter of dealing with officials and dignitaries, but he designed this trick to kill people with a knife, which caused the Zheng family and the Luo family to break up.So he straightened his clothes and looked solemn, and was about to go out when he saw a group of people striding in hastily. The young man headed by him was exquisitely dressed, and his face and stature were extremely familiar.When Shen Yuzhu saw it, he was surprised and said:

"Duanmu?"

This uninvited guest was Duanmu Yong, Shen Yuzhu's younger brother whom he hadn't seen for three years.Duanmuyong added two new mustaches on his lips, but when he reunited after a long absence, the expression of surprise and joy and infinite emotion in his eyes was exactly the same as before.Before Shen Yuzhu could ask, Duanmuyong took a step forward and hugged his shoulder, choking with sobs.

Shen Yuzhu was overjoyed, but he couldn't help being puzzled, he put his arm around Duanmu Yong's shoulder and asked, "Why are you here?"

Duanmuyong was about to speak, and a group of warriors behind him also joined in one by one, separating the two sides.The expression of joy on his face unnaturally subdued slightly, and he said with a smile: "Brother, I'm afraid I would never have imagined that the Zheng family of Jin State and our Duanmu family can be regarded as distant relatives..."

It turned out that the two of them failed to plan things back then, Shen Yuzhu was trapped in a cage, and Duanmuyong was apologetic, and they have been dealing with many parties in the past three years.But Luo Yi was very cautious in his layout, and hid Shen Yuzhu in the mansion for three years, never revealing any clues to the outside world.It wasn't until a few days ago that Duanmu Yong got the news, so he set off overnight for Jiangdu, the first stop was Zheng's territory, and he didn't expect to meet Shen Yuzhu here.

Seeing Shen Yuzhu's humiliation, Duanmuyong's joy was more than that of Shen Yuzhu himself.The two brothers and sisters reunited after a long absence, and they both felt as if they were separated from each other. They were deeply affectionate, even more so than in the past. For three years, they had suffered and cared about each other, and it was difficult to let go of it for a while.Duanmu Yong took out a wooden box from his bosom, handed it to Shen Yuzhu, and said, "Senior brother, do you still remember this?"

Shen Yuzhu opened it and saw that it was a three-legged golden toad carved from gloomy wood.He laughed and said, "How can I not remember? I made this with my own hands. I still remember you said that the three-legged golden toad is the family emblem of your Duanmu family——"

Duanmuyong held Shen Yuzhu's hand, pressed on the toad's back, choked up and said, "Three years ago, I also recognized my brother because of this golden toad. In the past three years, my brother's life and death are uncertain. But I do nothing, every time I see things and think about others..." He sighed and said sadly: "Senior brother, you must put it away carefully, so that you know my painstaking efforts—"

Shen Yuzhu held Duanmu Yong's hand, hearing his long absence, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion.But it was supposed to be the moment when the brothers and sisters talked about their separation, and the heavily armed soldiers on both sides stared blankly, which made Shen Yuzhu feel scruples.Duanmuyong obviously noticed it, and said with a smile: "Brother, this is the military courage I borrowed from the Zheng family. Don't blame me for being troublesome. It is a lesson from the past. I dare not stay in Jiangdu for one more day by yourself. Don't be more prepared. Brother, I haven't had time to ask you in the future, what are you going to do next?"

Shen Yuzhu couldn't help apologizing, and said: "I'm sorry to bother you. I'm going to leave in a few days. The ordinary things here have nothing to do with me." He paused, and then said: "Duanmu, I'm already very alienated from the outside world. I don’t know if there’s any news from Master in the past three years?”

Shen Yuzhu was alone, apart from Duanmuyong and other two or three close friends, only Qingyan Fushan was older than him and was also a teacher and father, who he cared about wholeheartedly.He still remembered Luo Yi's attitude of threatening Shan Chang's safety back then, although he expected that with Master's wise plan, he would not be caught without a fight, but he couldn't help asking.

But Duanmuyong saw a look of astonishment flashing across his face, and said hesitantly: "Master...Master..." He collected himself, and forced a smile: "Master is aloof and takes the world as his home. I haven't heard of him for many years. News. Come to think of it, no news is good news, at this moment Master must be transcribing classics and looking for ancient sites in the ancestral temple of a small country!"

Shen Yuzhu replied thoughtfully, and Duanmuyong said with a smile: "Brother by the way, you must have heard that Senior Sister Zhongli is now in charge of the Qi State. She has done a good job in reforming the old and eliminating the bad. You can clearly see the grand occasion of Duke Huan's time. Brother, if you don't give up, why don't you come and visit Linzi with me, and go to the place full of flowers and heavenly treasures to relax?"

Duanmuyong took the trouble to describe Linzi's prosperous scene to Shen Yuzhu, but the other party was unmoved, and just smiled: "Thank you for your kindness. But you know that I don't like excitement the most, and it must be boring to take me to play. I think, I'd better go back to Qingyan first..."

"That's good!" Duanmuyong rushed, "It happens that I have all the horses and horses here, so let me take the brother back together?" He looked out the window and said: "Today is late. Brother, please rest for one night, so that we can set off tomorrow morning, how about it?"

Shen Yuzhu was startled: "Why is it so hasty?"

Duan Muyong said earnestly: "Senior brother, although Luo Yi was captured, but 'a centipede is dead but not stiff', the Luo clan's tens of thousands of soldiers are still brave, if they stay here, they may have long nights and dreams, which will bring disaster."

Shen Yuzhu said in his heart: "If this is the case, it is time to carefully plan and kill the Luo family, so that it can be called an eternal trouble." But he also felt that it would be an extremely troublesome task to start a war and ignore human lives. Yi's "hate" is really not enough to bother him so much.After weighing again and again, he agreed to Duanmu Yong's proposal.

Duanmuyong breathed a sigh of relief, smiled happily, and said: "I'm going to prepare now, brother please wait a moment." After saying that, he got up and left.Shen Yuzhu smiled and said, "Hey, don't you take all your followers away together?"

Duanmu Yong said with a smile: "They are also to ensure the safety of the senior brother. If the senior brother thinks they are an eyesore, I will tell them to wait outside."

Shen Yuzhu smiled and nodded.After sending Duanmu Yong away, he closed the door and opened the box he gave himself again.After touching it carefully, there is no hidden compartment in it.He murmured, holding the golden toad in his palm, and when he touched it, he realized that the soles of the golden toad's feet had been smeared with pine oil, sticking greasy between his fingers.

With a twitch in Shen Yuzhu's heart, he hid Jin Chan in his sleeve and leaned against the window to glance out.I saw that all the soldiers in front of the gate had changed, all of them were sturdy and strong.Occasionally, there were two or three people whispering in the corner, as if they were arranging something, but as soon as they met Shen Yuzhu's eyes, they immediately silenced and walked away as if nothing had happened.

Knowing what he was thinking, he simply pushed the door open and stood up.Sure enough, the soldiers became vigilant as if they were facing a big enemy, and the leader rushed forward, bowed and smiled apologetically, "What orders does Mr. Shen have?"