Xia Houlin recognized the bed, and he didn't sleep well all night. He got up when it was dawn, opened the door and saw that the light in Xie Jinglan's room was on. Xia Houlin brought a cup of tea in, and saw Xie Jinglan sitting at the table holding the scroll, the candles on the table were burning to the end.
Could this kid read all night without closing his eyes
Xia Houlin guessed right. Xie Jinglan sat for a night. The books he picked up in the past were either missing pages or corners, or Xie Jingtao wrote a lot of crooked and unreasonable comments. This was his first Back to get such a good book. I read it all night, savoring what I can understand, chewing hard on what I can’t read, and just finished reading most of the book.
He was so hungry and thirsty that he was like a poor man who had been in a drought for a long time and could not wait to swallow the whole book.
Xia Houlin didn't dare to disturb him, and quietly went out the door. He brought a tray from the kitchen, carrying the tray and pretending to be a servant to hang out in the house.
A good assassin's first task is to familiarize himself with the terrain and plan the best assassination and escape routes.
When he was a child, he followed his mother down the mountain, and he followed her to survey the surrounding terrain. Although there were maps provided by Jialan Dark Pile, his mother had to walk through each of the streets, ditches, and wells in person.
The Xie Mansion is very big, at least five Garans are so big. Xia Houlin walked for a long time before he could touch the outer wall. When no one was around the wall, he just landed and was picked up by a big hand covering his mouth. Xia Houlin turned his head and saw that it was Uncle Duan, whom he had not seen for a long time. .
Xia Houlin was excited, Uncle Duan must have come to assign him a task.
"Boy, didn't you get punished in there? Look at you like a monkey. You are still restless when you are someone's servant. You climbed up and down." Duan Shu gave him a few buns for him to eat, and lit a cigarette himself. A few stray smoke rings came out of his mouth.
"Uncle, tell me who I'm going to kill, I'll make sure it's clean and beautiful!"
"Just like you, you kill people? It's good to save your own life. Stay safe inside and don't cause trouble for me. Uncle still has work to do, so you have to go to Northern Zhili. Your mother went to the Western Regions, It will take more than half a year to come back, you are fine here, if you have trouble finding an old man in the house who carries firewood." Uncle Duan gave him a few taels of silver and warned.
Xia Houlin turned his head and said angrily: "No, didn't you say that if I succeed this time, you will put up a sign for me? Dare you find a place for me to hang out and let me not get in your way. !"
"What brand do you put on? It's like a brothel girl. Do you think you'll be good if you put a brand on it? With your three-legged cat skills, you've been cut into pieces of meat before you even get close to someone else's body." Uncle Duan He poked him in the head, "You kid, it's for your own good to let you stay here, do you think it's easy to do our business?"
"I want to be a fearsome assassin like my mother!"
Uncle Duan shook his head, looked at Xiahou for a long time, and sighed: "You are too old, so I should tell you the truth. Do you know what your mother is doing this time?"
"Assassination of the Great Wheel King of the Western Regions. I all know, I have read his documents, this man is good at using the poison of the organ, and he is in the middle of the road, and he is superb in the sword dance. But so what, if it falls into the hands of my mother, he will still die. It has to be clear."
"Then, do you know that the two assassins that Jialan sent to this person were both folded by this person? The road in the Western Regions is far away, the wind and sand are unpredictable, and the situation is not as good as in the Central Plains. Although your mother is excellent in swordsmanship, this time is a lifelong death." Uncle Duan rarely restrained With a joking look on his face and a serious look on his face, Xia Houlin felt uneasy in his heart, "This trade in human life has always been a job with his head hanging on his trousers belt, and there are many assassins who trade one life for another. Let me ask you a question. , Have you ever seen assassins over forty years old in Galan? Not because we don't accept older assassins in Galan, but because most people don't live to that age!"
"Hu, nonsense! My mother is different. She ascended to the position of 'Garduro' at the age of 20, the master of the Golden Sword Sect, and the successor of the Shuobei Fengxue Dao. Who is not a tyrant in the rivers and lakes? When I met my mother, I didn't know what to do. All heads fell to the ground?"
"Alright, alright, your mother is amazing, I won't argue with you. Anyway, it's fine for you to know how much you weigh yourself. With your current knife skills, it's okay to chop pheasants and hares, maybe you can deal with tigers and leopards. What, the assassination is exempted. Uncle bet with you that with your level of killing, you are guaranteed to live beyond the age of twenty. Your mother entrusted you to me. If you dare to die and lose your life, don’t think that I will give You burn paper!"
After Uncle Duan finished speaking, he put on his straw hat, and picked up the peddler's stand by the wall. In a blink of an eye, he became a peddler who traveled all over the world. No one could see that he was an assassin who would kill without blinking an eye.
Xia Houlin looked at his back. It was a man with broad shoulders and a strong body. His thick and knotted muscles could not be covered by a rough cloth shirt. When he picked up the knife, he was a powerful Garan assassin. He once chased and killed the first assistant of the dynasty for thousands of miles, and Jin Yiwei surrounded the inn so tightly that the next morning Xiao Er opened the door but only saw a headless corpse. No one knew how he sneaked into the inn and obtained the first assistant. Head on the item.
Every assassin has his own story, and it has the same ending - to die in a terrible way, to be buried in the wilderness.
At this moment, he was walking on the stone pavement carrying the peddler's shelf, and the straw sandals on his big feet had a hole, revealing a rough big toe. Somehow, Xia Houlin could see the meaning of desolation.
Carrying the silver in his arms and kicking the stones under his feet, Xiahou Rin grabbed his hands and went to Longfusi Street in the western suburbs to buy pen, ink, paper and inkstone. Spent out and only a few copper plates remained.
When he came back, he saw the carriages and horses parked in front of the Xie Mansion, and he knew that the master had returned. He returned to Qiuwuyuan the same way, and handed the pen, ink, paper and inkstone to Xie Jinglan.
Xie Jinglan was so surprised that he couldn't speak, Xia Hou was smug, waiting for him to cry, but he didn't want him to grab his hand and said sternly: "Where did you steal it from? You are wrong. It can't be changed!"
"How do you know that I stole it?" Xia Hourong was about to retort, but then he thought about it, buying a set of pen, ink, paper and inkstone would be expensive. If he said he bought it, he would have to explain where his money came from. , had to bow his head dejectedly and said, "Okay, I just stole it, so what's the matter?"
"You!" Xie Jinglan was so angry that he didn't know what to say.
Xia Houlin rolled his eyes and said, "Don't worry, no one will find out, it won't hurt you, you can use it with peace of mind."
Xie Jinglan was even more angry. After Xia Houlin took a risk to help him steal books yesterday, he had unknowingly regarded Xia Houlin as his own. He was worried that Xia Houlin would be caught and interrupted, not that he would be implicated. He hadn't thought that Xiahou was so daring and dared to sneak out of the mansion, he just thought he came here. The eldest lady is vicious, bitter, and greedy for money. If she is caught, she will not be able to escape with a whip.
Xie Jinglan has an awkward temperament, prefers dead ducks with a tough mouth, and can't say anything about caring about people, so he said angrily: "Yes, I'm just afraid that you will hurt us! We are already struggling in the mansion, if it's because of you, I will Let's see how you clean up! I won't use these things, don't do it again!"
Xie Jinglan put away the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and hid them under the cabinet. She made up her mind to make them dusty and ashes. Xia Houlin's good intentions were treated as donkey's liver and lungs. Work in the house, and neither of them pays any attention to the other.
Lianxiang suddenly ran into the yard happily, shouting, "Master! Master! I have good news for you."
"What good news?"
"Master just checked the eldest young master's homework in the study, guess what he found?"
Without guessing, I knew that I must have found the erotic palace map that Xia Houlin put on his desk.
Lian Xiang couldn't wait for Xie Jinglan to answer, she said first: "Master actually found a picture of an erotic palace wrapped in the cover of "Book of Rites"! This made the master very angry, so he took the whip and put it on himself. The eldest young master beat the crap out of his blood, and the eldest madam could not persuade him. Hahaha, the eldest young master has no time to toss us now. I heard that the eldest young master has been beating for half an hour, and the eldest young master is afraid that he will not be able to get out of the bed. "
"… "
Xie Jinglan pushed open the window and saw Xia Houlin washing clothes by the well, he hesitated whether to apologize to him. Just as he was struggling, Xia Houlin suddenly turned around with a pair of obscene pants, staring at Xie Jinglan maliciously.
Seeing that the trousers were very familiar to Xie Jinglan, she hurriedly turned around to open the cabinet, and saw that the trousers hidden in it were gone, and they must have been taken away by Aunt Lan.
At this time, Xia Houlin's desperately demanding tone sounded: "Master Jinglan, did you pee your pants last night?"
"Xiahoulin, shut up!" Xie Jinglan closed the window with a "bang".
Xie Jinglan ignored Xia Houlin for three days, and Xia Houlin didn't take it seriously. He continued to do his own work, and by the way, he dug out the bird's nest beside Qiuwuyuan.
He was very happy in his heart, Xie Jinglan was also a serious person, let's see, but after taking a few glances at the erotic palace pictures, this little thought came alive. This little secret was hidden in his heart. Whenever Xie Jinglan showed a tantrum, he would take it out and make fun of him. In addition, he was born with a big heart, so he could not face Xie Jinglan's bad temper. Can handle it comfortably.
As for Xie Jinglan's disposition, he thought he had figured it out.
This guy has the temperament of the eldest lady. You can't get used to everything. The more you get used to it, the more hypocritical you are.
First of all, he has an outrageous obsession with cleanliness. The clothes must be washed cleanly without any stains. The dishes and chopsticks must be washed so that they can see the shadows of people. Secondly, this girl has nothing to do when she is full, and she even cares about Xia Houlin eating, not washing his hands before meals, and not rinsing his mouth after meals.
Xiahou was used to being a coward. How could there be so many rules on the mountain in the past? Besides, he is a man's family. The big man is not careful about the details, and he cares about how he dresses and eats cleanly all day long. That's called a mother-in-law. He couldn't understand the dignity and face that Xie Jinglan had worked so hard to support himself, and he couldn't understand the pursuit of the aristocratic gentleman, Zhilan Yushu, in his mind.
But who called him just a servant? She is still Miss Jinglan's exclusive servant, and she knows she can't get used to it and has to get used to it. Xia Houlin summed up his experience and would definitely not marry Xie Jinglan in the future.
On the third day of ignoring Xia Houlin, Xie Jinglan had dinner and went back to the back room to read as usual. When I opened the book, there was a small yellow flower lying inside, which was really beautiful against the yellowed pages.
"Do you like it?" Xia Houlin peeked into a furry head from outside the window.
Xie Jinglan picked up the little flower and said with a look of disgust, "It's all squashed and ugly."
"Aiya, this has come a long way, spent a lot of thought, and selected it from thousands of choices. This little flower represents my heart for you, Young Master Jinglan!" Xia Houlin Make an appearance of grievance, said.
Xie Jinglan looked at his pretentious appearance, only to feel that it hurt his eyes, sadness and liver, and turned his head away from him.
"To tell you the real business, this time the master not only came back by himself, but also brought back someone. You should have heard it, Dai Shengyan, you know."
Xie Jinglan opened the book and replied casually: "Well, I know. He is father's teacher, the champion in the twenty-eighth year of Qiyuan, elected as a Shuji Shi, an official to the minister of Honglu Temple, and filled with peaches and plums. Known as the Imperial Master."
"That's not true, the minister of the Honglu Temple is of the fourth rank, and he is much more prosperous than your serious father." Xia Houlin turned in through the window, "He wants to take an apprentice, and tomorrow he will examine the Xie family's children one by one in Lanfang Pavilion. The knowledge. Young master, this is a good opportunity, we have to find a way to sneak in. "
Xie Jinglan wanted to reprimand Xia Houlin for breaking the rules by turning the window and entering the house, but when he heard that Dai Shengyan was about to accept his disciples, his eyes widened immediately. Dai Shengyan has always loved talents, and did not hesitate to enter office early to make room for rising stars. If Xie Jinglan could worship him as his teacher, Xie Jinglan's life would be much easier.
But he worried again: "I haven't been to serious school, I only listened to the Master's lectures, and I haven't read all the books. Can I do it? Besides, the incident of my stealing learning happened, and the madam must have been prepared. I'm afraid I won't see Mr. Dai's face at all."
Xia Houlin grabbed Xie Jinglan's shoulder and said with a smile: "I don't care if he can do it or not, let's try it, and we won't lose any meat. As for that eldest lady, the young master has his own way to deal with her. "
Seeing Xia Houlin's confident appearance, Xie Jinglan couldn't help but feel suspicious: "Xia Houlin, you... why are you helping me with all your heart?"
My lord, I have a good heart! Xia Houlin didn't think about it, and was about to blurt out, when he turned his head and saw Xie Jinglan looking at him seriously, his eyelashes fluttered slightly, his cheeks were as white as porcelain, and a little fine hair grew.
Xia Houlin has lived for 12 years, and he has never seen such a handsome young man. He grinned and said with a smile: "Who told my young master Jinglan to be born so beautiful, I still feel pity when you see it, and people are fascinated by it. Ah! I, Xiahou Lin, are willing to go up the mountain of knives and go down to the sea of fire for you!"
"… "
Xie Jinglan held his forehead, he shouldn't have asked.