Fengzhou.
The stars hang low in the sky, and the moonlight is cold.
The annual event on the grassland came to an end. While the excitement of the daytime competition had not yet subsided, a banquet was held next to the tents according to the rules. A large bonfire was burning, and there was plenty of wine and meat. The milk-added wine was strong and mellow, and it tasted like swallowing a knife raw. The washed and skinned lambs or otters were roasted on the fire, and the oil sizzled and popped.
There is no need to follow the rules tonight. Everyone who comes, whether they are soldiers or herdsmen, can just take wine and meat and have fun until dawn. If they feel like it, they can even find a lady who is good at dancing to dance with them.
Li Qishen didn't like to join in the fun. He sat on the grass slope, watching the people playing below from afar, with the blazing fire reflected in his light amber eyes. He sat too far away, and there was no light source around him. Only the fire below shone in front of him, mixed with starlight and moonlight, making the young man look like half of the fire and half of the moon.
"Why do you come here to have some peace and quiet? Do you not like the ladies on our grassland?" Someone sat down and put down the tray. "Let me tell you, these two ladies, Uyahan from Agudamu's family and Hasiqiqige from Wuenqi's family, have been competing for the most beautiful one for three years. When you came, they all set their sights on you. Those gentlemen are so angry that they wish they could beat you up together."
Li Qishen really didn't know who the two girls Li Rongjin mentioned were. The names were so complicated that he was too lazy to remember them. He answered casually, "Forget it. You still beat me. You learned riding and shooting for so many years, but you still lost to me in the end. If I were them, I would just hang myself with a horse whip."
"You kid! Where did you learn such harsh words?" Li Rongjin was about to hit him, but when he reached his head, he let go of his strength and rubbed his head instead. "Well said, you have the spirit of a man of the Li family. No matter how vast the grasslands or deserts are, our ancestors conquered the world and trampled them all with their horses' hooves."
Li Qishen only smiled and didn't respond. "Actually, I didn't necessarily win at that time. It was just that in the first half, they thought I was a Han Chinese and underestimated me. When they remembered it in the second half, it was too late. There was a young man named Ha, Haer..."
He couldn't think of it for a moment, frowned and thought for a while, and Li Rongjin was so anxious that he slapped his thigh: "Halbara!"
“…Oh.” Li Qishen nodded, “Then let’s go with him. When it comes to horseback archery, I can’t compare to him. Unfortunately, he got anxious and shot three empty arrows. If I were not blind, I would have won.”
Li Rongjin felt that it was understandable: "There's nothing we can do about it. That kid has won two years in a row, and he was just waiting to win the third year so that he could pick the golden sunflowers and give them to his sweetheart. Who knew that when you came, the golden sunflowers were gone. There were also people making a fuss below, and he was so flustered that he couldn't shoot accurately."
Li Qishen said nothing and just smiled.
"What are you laughing at? Once you're on the horse, you have to keep your mind focused, or you'll die." Li Rongjin thought for a moment and poked his nephew with his elbow. "I remember when you got on the horse, you didn't place the first two arrows steadily, and some people started to make a fuss and asked you to get off the horse as soon as possible. How come you're so calm?"
"They just say I'm not good at riding and shooting. Let them say it." Having sat for too long, Li Qishen changed his posture, stretched his waist, and said lazily, "I have been scolded as a Xianbei bastard in the palace for fifteen years, and I am still alive today."
He didn't mean anything else, he was used to it, he just said it casually, but Li Rongjin's heart trembled when he heard it.
He was a rough man who didn't know how to comfort others. After thinking it over, he simply flicked Li Qishen's head with his finger and pushed the tray aside: "Drink. The best otter meat is a bargain for you."
Li Qishen was thrown back, touched his forehead, picked up a small silver knife, cut a piece of otter meat, and put it into his mouth with the knife.
Unlike lamb, otter meat is extra firm and oily. When you take a bite, the tip of your tongue is covered with oil, but it is not greasy. Instead, it feels like you have a spoonful of cheese in your mouth. When you bite it again, you will find the meat is roasted to perfection. When the tip of your teeth breaks the slightly charred layer on the surface, there is tender meat inside. The gravy mixed with oil rolls onto the tongue, which is so delicious that you want to swallow your tongue along with it.
In the moonlight, Li Rongjin caught the boy's expression: "How is it? Is it delicious?"
"Delicious." Li Qishen swallowed it and took another piece.
"No one will snatch it from you, it's all yours."
"Um?"
"I won't eat it. I'm old, and this stuff is too oily. I'd better eat less. If I eat more, how can I still ride a horse?" Li Rongjin knew what Li Qishen was thinking, and opened a wine bag, "I'll just drink."
Li Qishen did not force it and ate a few more slices of otter meat. Feeling a little greasy, he quickly opened the wine bag and took a sip.
Good wine, really good wine, after taking a sip, it felt like a fire was burning in my stomach. Li Qishen had never drunk much wine before, and his face quickly turned red, from his cheeks to the corners of his eyes, as if he had put on a graceful makeup.
"Why, you've been in Fengzhou for so long, but you still haven't learned how to drink?" Li Rongjin mocked him, "You can't do that. If you go to Agudamu's house one day and really get drunk, will you marry Uyahan or Alia when you wake up?"
"I won't go to his house to drink," Li Qishen took another sip, "I won't marry anyone."
Li Rongjin glanced at him and said that he was "not grateful for what he had, and many people wanted to marry him but couldn't", to which Li Qishen retorted "Why don't you marry him yourself?" The uncle and nephew drank and talked about each other's affairs until the second half of the night, when the bonfire was almost extinguished and the people on the grassland below also went into their tents.
The wine was too strong and Li Qishen was a little drunk, but he could still tell who he was. He grabbed the wine bag and licked the last drop of wine.
"It's over. I see that you will become a drunkard in the future." Li Rongjin sighed.
"You are the wine jar." Li Qishen retorted.
"You are not a good person. You really are not a good person. You are drunk and you talk to your uncle like this."
Li Qishen was too lazy to pay attention to him. He sealed the wine bag and threw it aside.
"Do you hate me?" Li Rongjin suddenly asked.
Li Qishen was puzzled: "Huh?"
"Sixteen years ago, I was in Lingzhou, serving as the governor of Shuofang."
Li Qishen was drunk and his brain was a little dull. It took him a while to understand what Li Rongjin meant and he said "Oh".
"My father was the governor of Shuofang. He stayed in Lingzhou all his life, fighting with the Tibetans. He died in the desert. I never thought about returning to Chang'an. I thought I would live out my life in Lingzhou just like him." After all, he had drunk a whole bag of strong liquor. It was night and the cold wind blew. Li Rongjin was a little drunk. He actually talked about the past to his nephew of Xianbei descent. "How old was I at that time? Sixteen years, sixteen years ago..."
"Twenty-two years old." Li Qishen calculated, but he was not sure if his calculation was correct. "Probably."
"... Yes, twenty-two, that's right." Li Rongjin nodded, squinting his eyes, as if he saw his past self through the passion of tonight, "I was twenty-two... At that age, I had just become a governor and married the person I loved. I dared to say and do anything, and felt that there was no obstacle in this world that I couldn't overcome."
Li Qishen responded: "Very good."
"The Tibetans were restless at the time. They tried to provoke us again and again, and even hurt people. I got angry and led my men over. Now I think I was really foolish when I was young. I was fearless. If a war really broke out and both sides fought, I would not be able to bear the responsibility." Li Rongjin shook his head and looked down at the grass on the edge of his boots. "I wandered around for two days and didn't find the Tibetan soldiers. I had to turn back. When I got back, the Tuyuhun people in the border tent had rebelled."
Li Qishen's pupils shrank, but he didn't show it on his face, and acted as if it had nothing to do with him: "This is a good time."
"Yes, of course it's good." Li Rongjin continued, "When my father was still alive, the western Tuyuhun came over, saying they were surrendering. Over the years, we were not prepared at all. As a result, when I went there, the Murongs stole the food and grass, burned the tents, and killed the servants in the camp."
He paused, violently tore off the blades of grass on the edge of his boots, and spoke again with a hoarse voice, "In order to humiliate me, he also ordered people to humiliate my wife and my sister."
Li Qishen was stunned.
"My sister had a strong temper and could not bear the humiliation, so she ended her life with a golden hairpin. My wife was the same. Did she want to be humiliated? But she was pregnant at the time, so she had no choice but to protect the child."
Li Shutan is only ten years old this year. Li Qishen asked, "What about the child?"
"It didn't work, and she eventually fell out, which left her with a chronic illness." Li Rongjin slowly closed his eyes. "She died of hemorrhage when she gave birth to Jialuo."
As soon as he closed his eyes, the scene of the past appeared in his mind again uncontrollably. At that time, Li Rongjin led his personal soldiers back to the city, but what he saw was a raging fire and blood all over the ground. The people who were still alive before they left, only the broken corpses were left when they returned.
Murong Hu led his troops, stepping on bones and blood, thinking he was invincible. He provoked him unscrupulously, laughed loudly, and talked about the details of the humiliation of the two women with his entourage.
“… So I killed all the people with the surname Murong in front of him, and then killed him.” Li Rongjin said softly, “It took a total of 127 cuts to skin and flesh.”
After so many years, when he picked it up again, the gun seemed to still be in his hand, hot blood dripping from the tip of the gun, and his palms were full of sticky blood. He did kill so many people, including soldiers who followed Murong Hu in the rebellion, as well as innocent women and children. Li Rongjin never hurt women and children, but at that moment he couldn't control himself.
This was the only way he could vent his anger. All his resentment and sorrow were concentrated on the gun. He pierced their chests in front of Murong Hu, picked out their still beating hearts, and threw them in Murong Hu's face along with the blood.
The only one who escaped was Murong Feique, a sixteen-year-old girl with a cold and beautiful face, but her eyes were somewhat similar to Li Rongjin's sister.
"Just kill me." She was very calm, as if she didn't see the blood and fire on the ground at all. "Blood debt must be paid with blood."
Li Rongjin didn't remember how many people he killed that day. He flattened the Tuyuhun camp and took Murong Hu's sister as a gift. But no matter what he did, it was irreversible. The dead would never open their eyes again.
The girl who had a ponytail when she was a child, rode horses with him, and called "Brother, brother" from behind him, had a golden hairpin piercing her chest; the woman who arranged his armor before he went to war, and lit a lamp to embroider purses for him at night, failed to fulfill her vow to grow old together, and closed her eyes forever without even seeing her daughter.
Li Rongjin's throat choked and he cried silently in the howling night wind, like a male wolf who had lost his mate.
The author has something to say: Hehe, I said, all living things suffer, no one can escape (lying down contentedly) Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angel who cast [mines]: spiral 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
29194498 8 bottles; Junzi Jiusi 7 bottles; Zhu Haoduo 2 bottles; Hanhan lost 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!