The imperial edict had been issued, and the matter was settled. Duan Xu did not say anything more to General Qin. When he said goodbye and left the camp, Qin Huanda looked at the back of this young man disappearing behind the camp gate, and suddenly he was in a trance for a moment.
He wondered if he was like this when he was young, sharp, frivolous and fearless.
The long time and the comfort of the border have worn away his ambition to recover the lost territory, and made him indulge in the turbulent power struggle in the court. But today he finds that he is caught in a myriad of party struggles, and he no longer has the courage to appreciate and promote a talented young man who belongs to a different camp.
If this young man grows up to his age, will he still remember his wish? Will he be trapped in the web of dust and unable to extricate himself, and have difficulty taking a step forward
Qin Shuai let out a long sigh and closed the imperial edict in front of him.
As soon as Duan Xu walked out of General Qin's camp, he saw a familiar-looking waiter waiting at the door. He thought for a moment and realized that this was someone close to Zheng An.
The waiter bowed and said, "General Duan, Lord Zheng wants to see you."
Duan Xu smiled and nodded, saying, "Thank you."
He followed the waiter through the tent and came to Zheng An's carriage. The waiter lifted the door curtain and said to Duan Xu, "General, please come in."
Duan Xu lifted his skirt and stepped onto the carriage, then bent down and entered. As soon as he entered the carriage, he met Zheng An's gaze. Zheng An pointed to the seat next to him and said to him, "Sit down."
Duan Xu sat down, smiled, bowed and said, "Uncle Zheng."
Zheng An's usually serious expression relaxed slightly, showing a little smile. He wanted to pat Duan Xu's shoulder again, but he saw blood color on his clothes under his light armor.
Zheng An's hand paused in mid-air and then dropped it. He sighed and said, "You have suffered so much. If Cheng Zhang saw you like this, I don't know how heartbroken he would be. Your elder brother and second brother died early, and now he only has you as his son. If you have any accident again, what will Cheng Zhang do?"
"Master Qingxuan told me when I was a child that I would be able to turn misfortune into fortune in my life, so uncle and father don't have to worry."
"The court uncovered Ma Zheng's corruption case some time ago, and the emperor was furious. Your memorial about the war on the north shore pleased the emperor, and he immediately ordered me to ride as fast as I could to the front line to announce the decree. Although your name was not mentioned in the imperial edict, the emperor admires you very much, and since you have made outstanding military achievements, you will be reused when you return to the court." Zheng An said.
Duan Xu nodded, and said with a bright smile: "Thanks to Prime Minister Du and all the uncles for their help."
"Your father and I were classmates, so this is no problem."
After a pause, Zheng An's face became a little serious: "Shunxi, let me ask you, do you have any grudges with Fang Xianye?"
"What do you mean?"
"This time he submitted your impeachment memorial directly to the emperor without going through Marshal Qin, which is against the rules. If the emperor was not very satisfied with your memorial, you would have been in trouble again. Although Fang Xianye is Pei Guogong's man, he has repeatedly targeted you, which seems to be a personal grudge between you. I asked Cheng Zhang but got no answer. You must have offended him in some way. He is in a good position in the court now. Tell us so that we can help you deal with it."
Duan Xu showed a puzzled look, and said: "That? I don't know. I didn't know him before I passed the imperial examination in the same year. My father did tell me to stay away from him, but he never told me the reason."
Zheng An was silent, thought for a while, and then sighed.
Duan Xu spoke a few more words to Zheng An and then said goodbye. When he got off the carriage and watched the carriage drive away from the camp, his smile became fake.
Duan Xu thought, this is not much better than God knows, it is just like escaping from hell and falling into the pit of fire again. Even if they are accomplices, they will find ways to get some evidence from you.
I think the world is just a continuous fire pit, where is the paradise
He returned home alone, took off his light armor, bandaged the bleeding wounds again, and put on a soft round-necked robe and walked out onto the street. He walked among the passing crowd, stroking the sword in his hand, tightening it slightly, and then closing it.
He had just knelt and bowed in the camp, and now he was walking on the street, all relying on the habit of his body. Only when he saw his limbs making corresponding movements could he believe that he had indeed successfully controlled his body.
If he drew his sword and started fighting at this moment, what are his chances of winning relying solely on the inertia of his body
The feeling of loss was like when he fell into a hole in the ground when he was five years old. It was pitch black and he had no idea where to start. His stern father stood at the entrance of the hole and said to him - I won't save you, you have to climb out by yourself.
He cried from day to night, and finally he climbed out by himself. From then on, he never prayed for help from others. He thought no one could save him, not even his father or the gods. He had to climb out by himself.
That childish stubbornness, in the end, saved him in the end, because his father really didn't come to save him. He didn't know whether this was lucky or unfortunate.
Duan Xu raised his hands and placed them above his head. The sunlight seeped through his fingers and cast shadows on his eyes. He looked at the warm sunlight through his fingers.
This was his hand, but he couldn't feel anything.
He was so proud of this most agile and powerful body that allowed him to survive. If one day it is no longer strong, what else can he believe in
"General!"
A familiar voice woke him up. Duan Xu put down his hand and saw Meng Wan running towards him with a pale face. She said, "Shunxi, what's wrong with your friend? He walked all the way from the street and touched everything. He broke so many things."
She implicitly expressed the meaning of "This? It's too unworldly."
Duan Xu looked up and saw He Simu wearing the light pink skirt and jacket that girls like nowadays, standing by a street stall holding a windmill. She stretched out her hand and pinched the face of the dough figurine on the stall, and the dough figurine that had just been made and was still soft was instantly dented by her.
She continued to pinch and pinch the dough until the figure was beyond recognition and full of curiosity.
The boss was yelling, but He Simu turned around and shouted to Meng Wan without changing his expression, "Captain Meng, pay!"
Meng Wan stamped her feet in anger.
He Simu leisurely stroked the spread tables with his hand, walking towards them while smiling.
The windmill in her left hand began to turn rapidly. The warm spring breeze in the sunshine came from the south, swept across the turbulent surface of Guanhe River, passed through pavilions and towers, passed through this wide street, brushed through the gaps in her hair, and pushed the colorful windmill in her hand, making a faint huhuhu sound.
He Simu opened her arms, raised her head and closed her eyes. The sunlight shone brightly on her body, and the wind blew her clothes from behind.
Duan Xu was stunned.
He suddenly remembered the moment when he killed Fifteen. Fifteen's curse that you will always be a monster echoed in his exhausted, crazy and desolate mind, and that evil excitement and despair climbed up and strangled his throat.
Then this girl walked up to him, and she patted his face and said to him—"Wake up."
This is the first and only girl, other than himself, who said "wake up" to him in all these years.
Now she was pushed towards him by this bright spring, as if she had obtained the supreme happiness in this world.
Duan Xu stared at He Simu steadily. He suddenly laughed, his chest trembling with laughter, his eyebrows curved: "Is there really such a cute person in this world? Meng Wan, look at her, why is she laughing so silly."
Meng Wan looked at Duan Xu in a daze.
The wind blew up his hairband, and his smile was as bright as the sea of crabapple blossoms in Nandu in spring.
Duan Xu has always liked to laugh. He laughs when good things happen and he laughs when bad things happen. Many times, Meng Wan doesn't know what he is thinking or whether he is really happy.
But she searched her memory and could not find a smile as genuine and happy as the one Duan Xu was having at that moment.
Meng Wan was stunned and said: "Shun Xi...you..."
Before she asked the question, He Simu had already walked up to them. She said to Meng Wan leisurely, "Captain Meng, why are you still standing here? The store wants money."
Before Meng Wan could react, Duan Xu took out his purse and handed it to her, telling her that all the compensation today would come from him.
Meng Wan asked: "Shun Xi... who is this girl?"
Before Duan Xu could answer, He Simu answered for him: "Didn't I tell you? My name is Seventeen, just call me Seventeen."
Duan Xu was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "Seventeen?"
"Why."
Meng Wan looked at the two of them, sighed, turned around and paid the bill.
He Simu didn't feel guilty about owing money. She took the windmill and turned it twice, saying, "This is the wind!"
She was obviously not yet able to adapt to this mortal body with feelings. She only turned around twice before she stumbled over a stone on the road.
Duan Xu immediately held her hand, and He Simu's red fingers tightened between his fingers, interlacing their fingers and clasping them with his.
She seemed to have a living body, perhaps her hands were warm now, no longer as cold as the wind as before - her warmth came from his body.
He Simu looked at their interlocked hands and chuckled, "I heard that the ten fingers are connected to the heart."
"Um?"
"Do I hold your heart?"
Did I hold your heart
She said it lightly, and Duan Xu knew that she was just completely curious.
Their fingers were intertwined so tightly that he could not feel anything at all, yet he was not completely unable to feel anything at all.
My hands felt nothing, but my heart was trembling.
The icy spark that had pierced his heart the moment she said the word "hurt" finally melted, blended into his blood, and became a part of his ongoing life.
Duan Xu lowered his eyes for a moment, then raised them and smiled, his bright eyes gleaming with light. He said, "Yes."
I don't know since when, you have been holding my heart.
He Simu was so happy that she didn't notice the boy's focused eyes looking at her. She let go of Duan Xu's hand and looked around at the bustling world.
All the things that happened in the past four hundred years flowed before her eyes like a tide. She said softly, "So you really didn't lie to me. This world is so beautiful. It's worth it... these hundreds of years..."
For hundreds of years, we have worked hard to protect this world.
Father, mother, aunt, uncle.
He Simu called out their names in her heart. She wanted to say that this was the first time she felt the wind and sunshine, which were as gentle and blissful as they described.
She had never failed them, and they had never deceived her.
But where are they now
He Simu's eyes trembled. His extremely happy mood suddenly seemed to be covered by a layer of fog and he became dazed.
The cloudless blue sky seemed very high, as if it could never reach its end. A line of wild geese flew in a neat V-shape from afar, slowly disappearing into the blue sky. He Simu looked at the clear blue sky, then his eyes fell on the bustling street, and suddenly he laughed softly.
The world is vast, all living things are innumerable, but I am the only one walking alone.
No one can tell my joys and sorrows in life.
That night, the evil ghost He Simu had her first dream in four hundred years. Because she was an ignorant evil ghost who had never been a human, it was impossible for her to have a dream, so at first she thought it was real.
In the dream, her young mother held her hand, and her father played the flute for them in the bright white afterglow of the setting sun.
She asked her mother what was so good about the flute, as she could not recognize any tune at all.
The mother said that, in fact, her father couldn’t hear it now, he just knew the techniques.
She then asked, what is the significance of her father playing the flute
The mother laughed, patted her head and said, "But I can tell. Your father played the flute for me because he loved me. He knew I could tell his love. This is why living people love music, because there is love in it."
Her mother added: "Simu, the people who are alive in this world are fragile and sensitive, passionate and lively. Your power is too strong, you must learn to understand them and be gentle to them."
One day, you will be like your father, maintaining the balance between ghosts and humans to protect this world.