In the sound of the twilight drums, Ah Chu was sitting by the Linghua window and looking at the courtyard.
A few days ago, Dongchang Fanzi suddenly visited at night and turned Yunxian Tower upside down. All the clients and prostitutes were driven to the bottom of the patio, huddled together like frightened chicks. Fanzi coming to the door is tantamount to the evil spirit coming to the door asking for his life. When everyone saw the black swaying legs, they softened, and they fell on the ground, and no one dared to move.
Ah Chu was also in the crowd, hugging her sisters and looking around in horror. She saw that the bustard's body was dragged out by the fans and lay across the bluestone ground. The mottled white-pink face of the old woman was dead. She was in high spirits on weekdays, but she didn't feel old, but now she was dead, her face was soft, like a lump of mud.
The sisters and sisters covered their mouths, revealing a pair of panicked eyes. Immediately after, another corpse was dragged out, and Ah Chu recognized it immediately. It was Xiahou, her servant. Ah Chu wanted to run over, but her sisters held her tightly, and several clients also stopped her from moving. She could only cover her mouth and cry silently. The world seemed to be in chaos all of a sudden, and it changed at once.
Fanzi ran in and out of the courtyard in the east and west, and found many medicine jars, wine jugs, and even flower bottles hidden in the fruit of bliss. As soon as everything was thrown in the middle of the courtyard, the women's faces turned pale when they saw it. The government has long banned the buying and selling of bliss fruit. Although there is still circulation in the dark places such as casinos and brothels, once they are found, they will be imprisoned to death.
The leading stall head poked at the bottles with a knife, raised his eyelids and glanced at the frightened women, and snorted: "As expected, it's all Garan gangsters, take them all away!"
In an instant, the cries all over the place shook the sky, and Ah Chu panicked, where did so many bliss fruits come from? Will she go to jail if she doesn't use it? Her sister cried and begged: "Sir Mingcha, those are all given to us by mother, what kind of galan, we don't know!"
Fanzi turned a deaf ear, the clients were singled out to stand aside, and the servants were pushed out of the courtyard in a line. The captain of the school followed behind with a whip, as if driving a herd of animals. The women's usual flamboyant charm disappeared, and their soft words turned into mournful howls.
Ah Chu was pushed into a daze, and when she was about to leave the yard, she remembered that she still had the savior Xia Houlin. Busily carrying her skirt, she stumbled and knelt under the whip, and said sadly, "Sir, Minnv is an old acquaintance of Lord Shen Lin, please let Minnv meet him, he will definitely be willing to save me!"
"Are you Ah Chu?" The stall next to him came over.
"Yes, it's me." Ah Chu nodded quickly.
"You don't have to follow, go over there." The stall head pointed to the bottom of the corridor.
After the catastrophe, the rest of her life was too late to rejoice, when Ah Chu heard her sister begging her for help from behind, she was busy kowtowing and begging for mercy, she put her sleeves on her head and said, "Miss Ah Chu, do you know why Yunxian Tower was investigated? You bustards. It's a dark pile of Garan. The supervisor has been tracking Garan for so long, regardless of whether it is a royal relative or a commoner, if you get caught with Garan, you will die. If you are lucky, the supervisor has opened the mouth to let you live, and no one else will think about it. "
Ah Chuan said: "Is there any misunderstanding? Our mother was in Rouge Hutong when she was a child, and she had friendship with many officials and masters. If you ask, you will know, how could it be Jialan dark pile?"
The stall head pointed his knife to the corpse on the ground, "Today, your bustard sent a jug of wine to Lord Xiao Shen, and Lord Shen stopped the food as soon as she drank it. We came to pick up someone, she has already committed suicide by hanging herself, you still Say it was a misunderstanding?"
"Lord Xiao Shen, what's wrong with him!" Ah Chu suddenly widened her eyes.
"What's the matter? Almost died!" He snorted, "The one named Xiahou in the girl's courtyard is also a hidden stake, so wouldn't he kill himself? Originally, girl, you are the most inescapable, and the governor, the old man, will let you go. Ma, just cover your own life and have fun, don't make a fool of yourself. We'll have to cross-examine some matters later, and please cooperate with the girl, don't make us embarrassed. "
Ah Chu nodded dazedly, and retreated to the bottom of the corridor to watch her sister being taken away. Her mind was clouded, and she couldn't move like it was rusted. She has suffered too much in the past two days, she can't think anymore, she doesn't know what to do next.
Yunxianlou was quickly sealed, and she was locked inside and couldn't go out, and three meals a day were delivered by Fanzi. Ah Yuan didn't come to see her, she thought it would be better if she didn't come. Ah Yuan is just a little prince in the valley. Once she is accused of Jialan's disorderly party, Shen Changgong's life is just a matter of lip service. .
Fortunately, Fanzi treated her politely, except that she couldn't walk around freely, there was nothing in the way, and she was much more leisurely than when she was playing, playing and singing on weekdays. She had nothing to do and could only sit by the window in a daze.
Yunxian Tower is the place where the three religions and nine streams gather. She has been around for all these years, and she is very knowledgeable. A few years ago, when Galan was in the limelight, people often hugged three or two singing in their arms, mysteriously took out a white porcelain mask, and said that they were Galan Babu. There are all kinds of names, such as Garuda, Kinnara, Feitian Gong, and Earth Spinning Top. The names are so weird that she can't tell them. In fact, most of them are fake. Garan's white porcelain mask has long been rotten on the street, and there are often children running on the road wearing it. They pretended to be galan assassins, but in fact they wanted to deceive mindless prostitutes, drinking tea for nothing without spending money.
She thought how could her dumb little servant be Jialan dark pile? If he had a dark pile, he could only be counted as a dumb gong at most, and even if he knocked on the lacquer, he wouldn't be able to make a sound. She lay back on the Luohan bed and sighed, thinking of the suffering sisters in prison and Xia Houlin, whose life and death were unknown, she was sad and anxious, but there was nothing she could do.
The Linghua window was knocked twice, she sat up suddenly and went to open the window, only to see Bailiyuan standing below. She turned pale in shock, looked around quickly, confirmed that there was no fan, and hurriedly asked her to climb in through the window.
Bai Liyuan was covered in muddy water, her blue satin horse-faced dress with flowers and gold was too dirty to look at, and the hairpins on her bun were also loose, and the fringes hung down on her face. While helping her to wipe the mud, Ah Chu scolded: "What are you doing? If you are found by Fanzi, you are not afraid of being caught in the prison?" Cloth, he said, "How can there be a prince like you in the world, crawling through the dog's hole every day to drill into the girl's boudoir."
Bailiyuan looked at her pitifully, "I only drilled through you."
When Ah Chu saw her like this, her heart softened, she sighed, and turned to make tea. She suddenly remembered about Xiahou, turned her head and wanted to talk to Bailiyuan slowly, but hesitated for a while, but in the end she didn't speak. It's hard to have a brother, but she just died like this, she must be sad. Ah Chu secretly sighed again, and walked over to get the teapot. Bailiyuan followed her by pulling her skirt, Ah Chu turned and she also turned, Ah Chu stopped and she also stopped, like a puppy following every step of the way.
"Sit down, why are you following me?" Ah Chu was helpless.
"I didn't come to see you, do you blame me?" Bai Liyuan looked up at her with big black and white eyes.
"What's your fault?" Ah Chu flicked her forehead, "It's right that you don't come."
Bai Liyuan felt the pain, pouted her lips, and said, "The other day Dongchang came to copy Yunxian Tower. I originally sent someone to take you away on the road, but you were not among the crowd. Someone in my family was sick. You're fine, I didn't come to see you."
Ah Chu squatted down and looked at her, "Your family is sick, is it okay?"
Bai Liyuan lowered her eyes and said, "He was ill before, I gave him medicine and he would be fine. I thought that as long as he kept taking medicine, he would be fine, but I didn't expect it to relapse a few days ago, and he had a lot of bleeding. Blood. My uncle said he was helpless, he was dying."
The light from the outside sky shone through the window and onto Bailiyuan's bun, which was plated with a very light layer of silver. She raised her eyes to look at Ah Chu, and Ah Chu saw the deep fear and sadness in her eyes. "Sister Ah Chu, will he die?" Bai Liyuan asked softly.
Ah Chu hugged her and stroked the top of her head, "Don't be afraid, Ah Yuan, it will pass, just like drinking medicine, it will pass after a while."
"Sister Ah Chu, what does it feel like to die? He is lying in the coffin alone, lying in the mud, will it be very cold? Can he hear outside voices? People pass over his head and talk over his head. , but he can't move, will he be sad?"
Ah Chu felt sad, Ah Yuan was still so young and had already experienced the departure of so many relatives. She hugged her tightly and said, "A Yuan who doesn't know how, when a person dies, he will be reborn. He will take Huangquan Road, cross Naihe Bridge, and drink Meng Po soup."
"Then will we meet again?"
"Yes," A Chu smiled softly, "It will definitely be, maybe he was reincarnated as a child and beat you in front of you, and you still wouldn't recognize him."
Bailiyuan didn't smile. She turned her head to look at the distant mountains outside the window. The wind was blowing outside, and the iron horses under the eaves were clinking non-stop, forming a long string of crisp, like a soul-calling tune. After the people of Shuobei died, they had to summon their souls. They hung a lot of small bells made of copper in the house. When the souls flew back, there would be wind and the bells would ring. Families prepare meals for the returning ghosts and do their final practice for them.
She stretched out her hand to touch the wind, as if she wanted to touch a few wandering ghosts. The wind pierced through the fingertips without a trace. Bailiyuan withdrew her hand and suddenly said, "Sister, I'm leaving soon."
Ah Chi froze her hand around her.
"I'm going back to Shuobei, and I won't be here until next year." Bailiyuan said.
"A Yuan..." Ah Chu wanted to cry very much, her nose was full of tears, but she had to hold back, the child hadn't cried yet, so she couldn't cry first as an adult.
"Would you go with me? The capital is not stable, Xia Houlin can't protect himself, and he can't protect you. Come back to Shuobei with me, that's my territory. I'll take you back to Snow Mountain, I have a lot of gold, you Anything you want."
Ah Chu wanted to cry and laugh when she heard it, "You child, you talk nonsense all the time." She sniffed, "I'm an official prostitute of the Jiaofang Division, and I can't leave."
"Okay," Bai Liyuan raised her hand to touch her sleek bun, "Sister trust me, I can do it. I'll be leaving at the end of the month, and I'll pick you up when the time comes."
She hesitated, if there was a way, it would be best to get out. She asked tentatively, "Will it be troublesome?"
Bailiyuan shook her head and said no.
Ah Chu made up her mind, nodded and said, "Okay, I'll wait for you to pick me up."
Bailiyuan climbed out of the window and returned on the same path. The world was shrouded in a bleak twilight, the rain was falling again, and the shop owner was opening the door panels one by one and hanging the latches. There were children making trouble on the road, chasing them back and forth, as if they would never stop. Several swallows flew over the tricks, their black wings cut through the rain curtain and disappeared under the eaves of other people's houses. She passed under the archway in Chulou, and opposite a mirror-grinder was holding a load. When she passed by, she saw his lips, which meant that Xia Houlin was not dead.
She didn't react and went straight back to the Hou Mansion. The ethereal Xun sound came, and she followed the Xun sound and walked forward, just like many years ago, the young man in gray and white clothes was sitting under the porch, blowing the tune like a ghost alone. In the wind and rain, the sound of Xun was intermittent, like beads that were not connected to a thread.
Bailiyuan shouted in the mix of rain and xun: "Brother."
Chi Yan put down Xun, his face was still very pale, but his eyes were very quiet, reflecting the wind and rain all over the world, like a dark and deep ancient mirror.
"Don't call me brother, Baili, I'm going to kill you," he said.
"But you're going to die, you can't kill me." Bai Liyuan sat in the opposite corridor, and the two of them talked through the rain curtain, "Are you afraid? When you die, you'll be cold, and you won't be able to get warm again."
"I'm not afraid." Chi Yan stretched out his hand to catch the raindrops that fell on the tile, "Everyone will die."
"But why doesn't Xiahou Lin have to die!" Bailiyuan's expression became grim, "Brother, he is not dead, he is alive and well. You see, Murder loves him, Xiahou Pei loves him, and God loves him too, only you Unloved. He was successful, he was at ease, and you had to suffer, why don't you hate him?"
"You are wrong." Chi Yan's eyes were silent, unable to tell whether it was joy or sorrow, "We are brothers, we are connected by blood and destiny."
"But you can't see each other in the end." Duan Jiu walked over with an oil-paper umbrella, "Your days are running out, you're tired, maybe you'll never see your brother again in this life."
Chi Yan lowered his eyes, and there was an unconcealed sadness on his pale face.
"I said, I'll give you a chance." Duan Jiu took Moment out of the cloak and passed it into the rain, the raindrops fell on Moment's black scabbard, splashing some water droplets, "Kill Shen Jue, I will give it to you. Free, let you find your brother."
"When are you going to kill him?" Bailiyuan asked behind Duan Jiu.
"Yan Luo, the day you leave the capital, I will practice it with Shen Jue's head." Duan Jiu smiled, "It's hard to kill Shen Jue, you are the strongest assassin of Jialan, only you have the power to kill Shen Jue. I hope so. Will you promise?"
The rain in front of the steps is swaying, as fine as needles. Twilight closed, and they looked at each other silently in the rain.
"Okay." Chi Yan said, "I promise you."