Duan Jingyuan was stunned for a moment, and she whispered, "Let me ask you again, are you Miss He? The Miss He who lived in our Duan Mansion a few days ago, went to watch polo with me, and my brother liked her?"
He Simu nodded.
Duan Jingyuan swallowed his saliva and spoke again: "You are... an evil ghost disguised as a human, or... an evil ghost leader, right?"
He Simu nodded again.
Duan Jingyuan clenched her hand around the scroll and said, "You saved me today. I will never forget your kindness. But Miss He... can you let my brother go? My brother is a good man. He has never done anything bad and has never killed a good person. You are going to take his life!"
He Simu couldn't help but burst out laughing when she heard that. She turned her head and said, "I won't take your brother's life. The relationship between him and me should be said to be love? Real love."
Duan Jingyuan stood there in a daze, as if he saw the script of a human-ghost love story come to life.
"As for asking me to let him go, you should tell your brother. As long as he is willing, I have no objection. But your brother has known for a long time that I am an evil ghost."
Duan Jingyuan thought, is this a real script? A routine.
This place was a little far from Duan's residence, so He Simu sat on the Ghost King Lantern and took Duan Jingyuan over the sky of Nandu and headed for Duan's residence. As night fell and the lights came on, Duan Jingyuan carefully leaned on the lamp post, looking at the familiar streets and fireworks in fear and amazement. Countless people came and went, and rows of lanterns illuminated the world like the Milky Way.
She was praising quietly, when suddenly there was a slight bump. She couldn't help but grab He Simu's wrist in panic, then immediately let go in panic.
He Simu turned his head and glanced at her, then turned away again: "I won't let you fall."
Duan Jingyuan hesitated for a while and said, "Your hands? They're so cold."
"I am a dead man, so it is natural."
Duan Jingyuan looked at He Simu's profile in the wind, then looked at the distant ground below, and carefully reached out his hand to grab He Simu's sleeve.
He Simu glanced at the hand holding his sleeve, smiled softly, and said nothing.
"Miss He, why did you save me?"
"I am dead, but I am not without conscience. After all, you took me to travel around Nandu for many days, taught me one by one, and deliberately protected me in front of Wu Wanqing. Besides, you are also Duan Xu's sister."
Duan Jingyuan was a little confused. She couldn't understand what happened today. She asked, "Are all evil spirits as gentle as you?"
This time He Simu turned her head, the blood on her face had not been wiped off, and her eyes were serious. The horrible aura that made people unconsciously think of death surged again, and Duan Jingyuan shuddered.
"Even if a wolf saves a sheep a hundred times, it is still a wolf and a sheep is still a sheep. This is an eternal truth. People should not have too high expectations of evil spirits. Evil spirits can be good or evil. If a living person encounters one, they should run away."
Duan Jingyuan suddenly didn't know whether he should take back his hand that was pulling her sleeve.
"… No matter what, you are a ghost and my brother is a human. Humans and ghosts are on different paths. I will not let my brother continue to be with you!"
He Simu smiled noncommittally and did not respond. He just drove the Ghost King Lantern directly into the courtyard of the Duan family. Duan Jingyuan's feet finally landed on the ground. He Simu removed the illusion on her body. Duan Jingyuan looked back at her, said thank you, and then immediately turned around and ran away with her skirt lifted up.
He Simu leisurely watched her run into Duan Xu's yard. She walked over slowly and heard the faint crying of Duan Jingyuan. She should be crying to Duan Xu about what happened today.
"Kings?."
He Simu turned her head and saw Yan Zhang appear beside her, bowing deeply.
"Your Majesty? I have completed what you asked me to do."
"So fast?"
"That living person is in very bad condition and cannot stand the torture."
"Then let's throw him back to his home, and clear his memory."
"Yes." Yan Zhang stood up, glanced at Duan Xu's yard, and said, "Your Majesty, you always protect the living, but they don't think anything good of you."
"Why do I need them to think about me? Do I need them to build a temple to worship me?" He Simu turned to look at Yan Zhang and said, "Is your man old enough?"
Yan Zhang nodded.
He Simu didn't ask any more questions, but just waved his hand, and Yan Zhang left.
Yan Zhang is the master of the Xiao Ghost Hall. All the people in the Xiao Ghost Hall are women, and the number of women in the mortal world is the largest. She was despised and played with by men when she was alive, and she loves to play with men the most after her death.
Yan Zhang had a man she loved deeply, but that man betrayed her and caused her to be disfigured and die tragically. After she turned into an evil ghost, she would seduce the man every time he was reincarnated and grew up to be 18 years old, eventually causing his family to be destroyed and his death to be a miserable death.
How many generations have passed? Thirty generations
In many lives, that person seemed to be a good person. After so many reincarnations, he was no longer the person who had let Yan Zhang down in the beginning, and such revenge had long lost its meaning.
Does Yan Zhang know? Maybe she doesn't want to know.
He Simu sighed, then lightly jumped and sat on Duan Xu's courtyard wall. He just happened to see Duan Jingyuan holding Duan Xu's hand and asking him, "Brother, did you know that Miss He is an evil ghost?"
Duan Xu raised his eyes, passed Duan Jingyuan, and fell on He Simu who was sitting on the courtyard wall. He Simu smiled slightly. He retracted his gaze, patted Duan Jingyuan's hand in a soothing manner, and said softly: "I know."
"Then you still... you still like her? You are still with her? Evil spirits eat people!"
"In this world, sometimes people eating people is much more terrifying than ghosts eating people."
"Brother! Are you listening to me? Miss He, He Xiaoxiao is an evil ghost, how can she be your lover? Humans and ghosts are different, humans are yang and ghosts are yin, being with her will definitely hurt you. Think about it carefully, you still have a long way to go in the future, you will definitely have to get married and have children. If you don't think about yourself, think about your parents... Brother, you can see that the love between humans and ghosts in the play scripts never has a good ending! Don't go looking for her anymore, okay, break up with her!"
Duan Jingyuan gave earnest advice and almost begged at the end, as if she was determined to rescue her third brother from suffering and bring him back to the right path.
Duan Xu was silent for a moment. His eyes were always clear and smiling, as if he had nothing on his mind. At this moment, his eyes were also like this, as calm as a shallow and clear pool of water.
He said very straightforwardly, "Okay."
The third brother agreed.
Duan Jingyuan thought, Third Brother actually agreed so easily. The weight in her heart seemed to have fallen, but it stopped halfway.
"Third brother, tell me the truth. Are you really never going to see her again? Didn't you lie to me this time?"
Her third brother was standing with his back to the light in the dark night. She suddenly felt that his expression was blurry and seemed out of reach.
Duan Xu looked at her calmly, then said with a smile: "Jingyuan, you already know it in your heart, why bother asking me again."
Duan Jingyuan let go of his hand and took two steps back. She looked Duan Xu up and down, as if she had never known him before. How could he lie so cheerfully and lightly
"... Third brother, why are you doing this? How many things are you hiding from me? We are family, we shouldn't have any secrets from each other." She was even a little desperate.
Duan Xu thought that there was still someone in this family who believed that there were no secrets between them. This was probably one of the few moments of warmth. So he pulled the bewildered Duan Jingyuan over, gently hugged her shoulders, patted her, and said, "I'm sorry."
He blocked all of Duan Jingyuan's questions with this one word of apology.
Shen Ying, who had watched the whole process, walked over to them and whispered tentatively, "Little Sister Xiao saved you on the polo field. She is not a bad person."
Duan Jingyuan pushed Duan Xu away, glared at Chen Ying and said, "Don't I know? I know she's very nice... She's very nice to me, but no matter how nice she is... She's an evil ghost! Third brother, why do you have to fall in love with an evil ghost? You either hide it all your life, or get discovered and stabbed in the back by others, you... you..."
As she spoke, her eyes turned red. She didn't know what else to say, so she could only turn around and rush out of the door, slamming it loudly.
Duan Xu and Chen Ying looked at each other, and Chen Ying said worriedly, "Sister Jingyuan won't tell anyone else, right?"
Duan Xu smiled and said, "She won't do that. She's afraid that my father will beat me. But she will probably be mad at me for a long time. I have to go and ask someone how to make her happy."
After saying that, he looked up and saw He Simu, who had watched the whole process, jumping down from the wall and walked in front of him. He stretched out his hand and said, "Come on, I'll take you to a place."
Duan Xu didn't ask where they were going, but just held her hand and said, "Okay."
Chen Ying said hesitantly, "Can I go with you?"
Before he finished speaking, He Simu and Duan Xu disappeared in front of him. He scratched the back of his head, looked around, and continued to practice martial arts with a pursed mouth.
Duan Jingyuan previously thought that He Simu had left Nandu, but Duan Xu was not sad at all, as if she had not left - that was because He Simu had just turned back into a ghost, she really had not left, and she often came to see Duan Xu.
He Simu and Duan Xu sat on the Ghost King Lamp, floating above Nandu. She said that she was walking on the street and suddenly felt Jingyuan's breath. She found that it was a place Jingyuan never went to, so she went to take a look out of curiosity. Just then she saw her maid Biqing lying in a pool of blood. Wang Qi wanted to grab Jingyuan, and it seemed that he was plotting against Jingyuan.
"But I have already dealt with Wang Qi."
Duan Xu nodded, he reached out to wipe the blood off He Simu's face, and said, "Thank you so much today."
"It's just a matter of lifting a finger."
"But why did you bring me here?"
"When I brought Jingyuan here just now, she was amazed at the night view of Nandu. I remembered that you probably didn't have the opportunity to see the scenery here, so I wanted to let you come and see it."
The wind was howling, and white silk threads were twisting and tangling in the streets between heaven and earth. People were like ants, houses were like lacquer boxes, lights were like the Milky Way, and even the most solemn and grand palaces looked tiny, reminding Duan Xu of the sand castle he had built when the sky knew.
"Do you like it?" He Simu asked.
"Of course I like it. I like it very much."
Duan Xu thought that she always seemed to want to give him something, which was a little strange and clumsy, but extremely cute.
He Simu cleared his throat and said, "It's just right for me to say goodbye to you. I have to go back to the ghost realm. I've been outside for too long, and there are always some things I need to go back to deal with."
Duan Xu sighed and said, "My sister-in-law just discovered my identity and left me alone with this mess. I have a feeling that I will be alone for many years to come."
He Simu glanced at Duan Xu and said, "What can I say to her?"
"Yeah, when you're not acting as a living person, it's good enough if your words aren't scary."
"Then why didn't you scare me away? You?"
"Why don't you leave? I'm leaving in a few days to raise troops."
He Simu remembered that she had always seen piles of drawings on Duan Xu's desk in the past few days, so she asked if that was the military formation he was going to use.
Duan Xu nodded and said, "Yes. Even if our armor is strong and our horses are sturdy, the cavalry of Daliang is still no match for the Huqi people who grew up on horseback. There is inevitably a gap in our cavalry strength. In this case, infantry is crucial. I am very familiar with Danzhi's cavalry. We must find a way for infantry to restrain cavalry. Before, we used a surprise force to capture three states during the civil strife in Danzhi. Now that the civil strife in Danzhi is gradually subsiding, it will not be so easy in the future. We need a foolproof plan."
He Simu then smiled and said, "Are you going to use your idea on your newly recruited soldiers? Where are you going to recruit them from? Have you thought about it?"
"Why, does His Majesty the Ghost King have any recommendations?"
"Let's go to Shenzhou. Shenzhou has the most evil ghosts. If they are fierce enough in life, they can continue to be fierce after death. Shenzhou has a large population and little land. There are often disputes and conflicts between families or villages. They often fight with weapons and blood. The father dies and the son inherits the family until death."
"Oh? That sounds good."
"Duan Fox, life is limited. How long are you prepared to fight?"
Duan Xu thought for a moment and said, "As the saying goes, five victories bring disaster, four victories bring disadvantages, three victories bring hegemony, two victories bring kingship, and one victories brings emperorship. Fighting too long and too often is unbearable for the national treasury and the people. Danzhi is too big after all. I think it is more appropriate to recover all the lost territory through three northern expeditions."
Three times, this is really shameless, but it is in line with Duan Xu's usual style. He Simu lay on his shoulder, his face close to him and teased: "My little general, this idea is really crazy."
Duan Xu smiled, with a smug light in his eyes, and leaned his head against her forehead: "Really? Then you probably won't fall in love with anyone else within a hundred years after I die, because you will never find another eccentric lunatic like me."
He Simu blinked and said, "Will I be able to find it in a hundred years?"
"You still can't find me, but you will slowly forget me, forget all my passionate life, and turn it into a vague outline that cannot be traced. You will also point to my grave and say, I used to like this person very much, but now, I can't remember his name."
Duan Xu spoke very calmly, as if jokingly: "Can you remember me for a little longer? Remember me for another hundred years."
He Simu looked at him, and she remembered his scarlet wedding dress amidst the red firecracker debris. She remembered his figure galloping on horseback under the golden sunshine of midsummer. She smiled silently, and then hugged his neck and kissed him.
"Duan Shunxi, I find that you have become more and more adept at pretending to be pitiful recently," she said.
Duan Xu sighed and said, "Ah, you found out."
The night wind was strong over Nandu. Under the moonlight, dense white silk threads between heaven and earth entangled them, tangling their hair together and stitching their bodies together. The sky and the earth were like silkworm pupae, and they were like larvae.
Three days later He Simu left Nandu, and ten days later Duan Xu was also ordered to leave Nandu to suppress the bandits.
In the Nine Palaces Maze in Yuzhou City, amidst the endless and bottomless darkness like an ocean, a dark area illuminated by heart candles suddenly appeared.
There, on the ground, sat a guy with snow-white hair and eyelashes, and snow-white clothes. He had many scars on his body, and looked disheveled and weak, with his head down and silent.
The man squatted down, lit up his face with the candle in his hand, and called his name: "Bai Sanxing, it's time to wake up."
The evil ghost in white raised his dark eyes, and light gradually gathered in his originally lifeless eyes. He seemed to have woken up from a long dream. He stared at the person for a long time before he said in a hoarse voice in disbelief: "Why... is it you?"