The first heavy snow swept across half of the Central Plains from north to south. The north wind was harsh. Outside Tianmen County, pedestrians on official roads almost disappeared. Although the city gate was only half-opened, there were still soldiers patrolling and interrogating, which showed that the guards were heavily guarded.
There is a barren slope five miles away on the outskirts of the city. There is a flower temple built in the lee of the city. It has been in disrepair for a long time and has become a dilapidated house. Today, an overhead carriage was parked outside the door, and there were several tall horses tied behind the house. It was Wen Heng and his party who fled from the Baoan Temple in a hurry.
Wen Heng was sent away by the abbot fainting that day, and he woke up on his own after being unconscious for less than two hours. Seeing that he was awake, Fan Yang was ready to be scolded by Wen Heng. Anyone who suffers a sudden bereavement at a young age will inevitably suffer heartbreak and collapse. Even he himself can't believe this terrible news, let alone Wen Heng, who is not yet an adult.
But Wen Heng did not lose his temper, nor did he cry and want to return to the capital. He accepted the reality faster than anyone else, and immediately ordered everyone to clear up the dry food and property, and sent guards to the town ahead to inquire about the news. Fan Yang didn't wait for the storm, he was relieved because he had found his backbone, and he was secretly worried about Wen Heng. See you soon.
The first night of the escape was peaceful, so peaceful that it all seemed like a ridiculous nightmare. However, on the second day, they left the city on the front foot, the whole city was under martial law on the back foot, and the wanted documents were overwhelming. Wen Heng was fortunate to glance at it, and before he had time to carefully identify his own face, he was deeply stabbed in the heart by the word "treachery" on it. .
He never dreamed that he would one day be associated with these two words, and the wealth and prosperity of the past fifteen years was like a dream, and it disappeared in an instant. What he couldn't understand even more was why Wen Kezhen would carry this charge. King Qing and Jinshang were brothers of the same mother. If he really had any idea, he should have met with each other in the early years, and he would not endure it until now. The huge mystery has nowhere to point to, he is completely unpredictable, and he has no way of clarifying it. He only hates himself for being young and weak, and there is no way to do it except to run away like a lost dog.
There was air leaking everywhere in the ruined temple, Wen Heng sat on the straw, staring at the fire made of dead branches in a trance. It was a blessing to have a roof to shelter him in the snow and ice, and the few days of fleeing life made him let go of everything. In addition to the whistling of the north wind, there were also cluttered footsteps. The guards were busy feeding horses or picking up firewood, but they didn't hear a few gossips.
Hearing these movements, Wen Heng thought to himself: "If it wasn't for me, they should have shared the joy of a family with their parents, wife and children. Why should they bear the charge of beheading and suffer in this world of ice and snow?"
I thought again: "If I didn't go to Baoan Temple that day, and I would have reunited with my parents underground at this time, what would be the point of my reputation? It's better than living alone in this world."
Thinking like this, he was persuaded by himself, and he felt more and more that death was a kind of relief. It not only saved himself from the pain of his heart, but also did not need to continue to implicate Fan Yang and the others. It was a good way to get the best of both worlds.
Wen Heng has been gloomy and depressed recently. Every day he is poked by the words "powerless" and can't sleep. It is rare to come up with a feasible idea.
Maybe it was because he sat for a long time, his feet were fluttering, and when he stood up, gold stars appeared in front of his eyes, but this did not prevent him from slowly walking to the door with a relieved and relaxed mood, supporting the flower temple, which was only half broken. He opened the door and opened his mouth to call out to Fan Yang.
The first word fell on the tip of his tongue, and Wen Heng suddenly caught a glimpse of a snow-covered little guy emerging from the wild woods, holding a big bamboo basket in his hand that was very incommensurate with his thin body, wading hard in the snow towards Fan. Yang ran over: "Brother Fan, I'm back!"
He handed the basket to Fan Yang, Fan Yang lifted the cloth and looked at it, his frowning brows suddenly stretched out, and he praised: "Okay, that's great, thanks to you!"
Wen Heng stared at this scene and thought for a moment, before he reacted sluggishly, it was A Que.
The child he picked up from the Baoan Temple was persuaded by his lavish promise, so he finally stayed. These days he was in a daze, sitting next to A Que in the car in a daze, so frightened that the child dared not speak. He originally promised to give Ah Que a worry-free future, but he didn't expect that it would all come to nothing.
Wen Heng suddenly thought that his death could free many people, but A Que was a poor little guy with nowhere to go.
"Aqueen."
Wen Heng called him in a hoarse voice, and when he trotted to him, he reached out and brushed the snowflakes off Aque's head, and asked, "What are you doing?"
Ah Que replied 1511: "Brother Fan said that the dry food we brought out is almost finished, and asked me to go to the nearby village, can I buy some food and come back."
He consciously made a contribution and was in a good mood. He even hoped that Wen Heng would praise him like Fan Yang, but he didn't expect Wen Heng's face to change suddenly, almost furious. : "Fan Yang!"
Fan Yang was taken aback, hurried over, and asked inexplicably, "Master, what's the matter?"
"You asked A Que to buy dry food?" Wen Heng asked, suppressing his anger, "What do you think?"
Fan Yang was stunned by his question, and after a while, he said, "My subordinates think that A Que is young and won't cause suspicion when going out, that's why..."
"You know how to make people suspicious!" Wen Heng finally became angry, "How old is he? What situation are we in now? If you encounter a chaser, do you still expect him to come back and report to you?"
Fan Yang lowered his head when he questioned him, and said in a low voice, "This subordinate is wrong."
Wen Heng said coldly, "Don't think that I don't know what your plan is, let alone be a villain. If you are too tired because of me, you might as well just give me a hit."
Now that the arrest warrants and documents are flying everywhere, they can't enter the city, and they are short of food, so they can only find another way. Fan Yang did make some calculations. For everyone in the palace, dealing with people would be at risk of exposure at any time, but A Que was just a child, and it was more convenient for him to do things than adults.
Furthermore, A Que is not a member of the Qing Palace after all, even if there is a real "in case", if he dies, he is just a little beggar with no context. For the palace, it is not a loss.
A Que was so young that he was fooled and wanted to repay Wen Heng. Fan Yang persuaded him with almost no effort. He expected that he would not go to Wen Heng, but he did not expect to be discovered by Wen Heng so quickly—
He didn't expect Wen Heng to care about this.
Fan Yang's mind was broken by Wen Heng's words. He was extremely ashamed, and deeply felt the love hidden in his words. He almost buried his head in the ground: "Sir, calm down! This subordinate knows it's wrong!"
Ah Que didn't understand their twisted thoughts, didn't realize that Wen Heng was angry for himself, thought that he was unhappy because of his unfavorable work, and caused Fan Yang to be punished, and explained in a panic, "I was very careful all the way. , not being followed or followed... Young Master, don't blame Big Brother Fan."
At the end, his voice was already tinged with tears, Wen Heng pulled him into his arms, and hugged his thin, trembling body tightly.
"I don't blame you... I didn't... "
Wen Heng's murmured whispers seemed to be mixed with a handful of sand, and his hot breath fell on his frozen pale skin, the temperature was almost scorching. Ah Que was so panicked that she didn't know what to do, she didn't dare to move, and her whole body froze in place as an ice sculpture. Until the hand around him suddenly loosened, the boy's body was like a landslide, and suddenly fell down.
"Son!"
In the heat and dizziness, Wen Heng felt that someone had moved him to rough straw. The hay was not soft, and even a little bit stubborn. The smell of soot and dust reached the sky, and there was also a cold, overcast wind that couldn't be dispelled by the bonfire... All of these made him feel unfamiliar, but outside of it, they were so precious, so precious that he wanted to cry.
This is the "silver line".
He was already on the verge of "death", but just after he blurted out the words of questioning Fan Yang, Wen Heng suddenly wanted to understand something.
He resented the coincidence of fate, and regretted why he did not perish with the palace, but he never thought that Baoan Temple was the outlet of this catastrophe. It was originally the princess' job to enter Xianglei every winter, but this time she fell ill so coincidentally that she had to put Wen Heng in a temple in the wilderness—
With such painstaking efforts, it was as if he had already anticipated the impending catastrophe, so he seized the opportunity to arrange the person he cared about the most and let him avoid the center of the whirlpool. Even from now on, he will no longer have the protection of his parents, and will face the unknown storms of this life alone.
Wen Heng blamed Fan Yang for not letting a child take risks for them, but he never thought about it carefully. In the eyes of the princess, he was also a child without self-protection.
And Ah Que is a mirror, which directly reflects himself, the one he hates the most, who clearly wants to do something but can't do anything, but is still tolerated and sheltered by others.
He even thought about dying.
Wen Heng was suddenly able to break through the realm of life and death, mixed with joy and sorrow, and his emotions were agitated. Qingming, who was weak as a candle in the wind, was finally overwhelmed. His eyes darkened and he completely fainted.
After an unknown amount of time, Wen Heng woke up from the coma again. As the consciousness recovered and became clearer, there were also the shrieks of the blades breaking the wind not far away and the cries of pain from time to time.
His heart skipped a beat. He cautiously did not open his eyes, closed his eyes and listened with bated breath. Sure enough, in the midst of the noise, he heard Fan Yang scolding loudly, "You thief is so shameless! He came out and fought with grandfather, and took advantage of others. What kind of hero is Dangerous!"
An old voice sneered and said: "What is the morality of the rivers and lakes to arrest the imperial prisoners?"
The sound of fighting was scattered all over the ruined temple, and the opponent sounded like there were a lot of people, and their martial arts skills were not weak, and they were inextricably fighting with the palace guards. Wen Heng tried to bend his fingers, but he was still able to move, but every joint on his body was sore and painful, and his temple was even more painful like a needle stick. Realized that he probably had a fever.
He had no time to care about his body, so he could only take advantage of this remaining chance to catch his breath and think about countermeasures. However, Wen Heng had no martial arts skills and could not hide his breath. The sound of his breathing fell in the ears of a person with a high cultivation base, and he knew that this person had woken up. Just as he was thinking frantically about how to solve the problem, an icy long sword had stuck to his throat like a poisonous snake, and the old voice said: "Since the little prince is awake, why don't you get up and see how your subordinates have been beaten into underdogs? of."
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Wen Heng covered his heart and coughed a few times. He sat up with difficulty on the dirt floor, as if he was about to die in the next moment.
He was dizzy for an afternoon. The bonfire in the temple had dimmed. Fortunately, there was still a weak sky outside, which allowed Wen Heng to see the whole picture of the person who came: It was a short old man with ragged clothes, disheveled white hair, and a drooping hooked nose. Eyes are born with a gloomy face. A single sword in a leather scabbard was pinned to his waist, and the handle of the sword was wiped cleanly. Thinking about it, this was his serious weapon. The sword in his hand was just obtained from someone else and used to intimidate him for the time being.
"This kid is not afraid of danger, but he still has a bit of toughness." The old man smiled grimly, "Even so, I'm not afraid to tell you, Tianmen City Yellow Eagle Gang, you broke into my hands today, but you died not wrongly. ."
"It turns out that the Yellow Eagle Gang." Wen Heng nodded, thought for a long time, and said sincerely, "As expected, I have never heard of it."