Jiangnan summer, the rain comes suddenly. When Xia Houlin arrived in Huizhou, it was the season when his feet were numb. The dense raindrops are stuck on the bluestone road, like dense stitches. The Wu Peng boat moves along the river in the misty water, with the white wall of Wuwa and the green willows and red peony on the bank.
Wanchun Tower is on the bank of the river, and the painting boats below are all owned by his family. It can be said that it is the largest trick hall in Huizhou Prefecture. During the day, there is no hospitality, but it does not loosen up. The servants on duty have to buy fresh vegetables, fruits and fish, and the cooks are busy making cold dishes that do not pay attention to freshness.
Xia Houlin is a servant who specially serves the little lady Yuenu. The work is not that heavy, and he sits under the porch to be lazy.
Yuenu is now the first-class figure in Wanchun Tower, and even surpasses the oiran lady in the limelight. Because she is about to marry Lu Qingcang, an old general who has recently returned home. Last month, when Lu Qingcang came to the building to listen to the music, he immediately fell in love with Yuenu, who was holding the piano for the lady of the courtesan. This is great luck. It only took a few months for Yuenu to be sold to Wanchun Tower. At the age of thirteen, the bud had not opened yet, and was learning to do chores. Cang watched.
Going to a rich family to be a concubine is what the girls in the building dream of, but I didn't expect to be met by a little girl like Yuenu. The girls don't show it on the open face, and they say so many nasty things in the dark.
Thirteen-year-old girl, she doesn't know anything yet. She only knew that she should be sad to be sold into a trick house by her parents, but she didn't know that she should be happy to marry a sixty-year-old general. Xia Houlin wanted to marry her into the Lu Mansion because of her newly bought servant. The day before yesterday, the Lu family came to deliver the dowry. In the lights, Yue Nu raised a small face the size of a palm and asked Xiahou Lin in a low voice, "Xiao Lin, are you afraid?"
What am I afraid of, I should be afraid of you. Xia Houlin thought sullenly.
But it doesn't matter, Xia Houlin will kill Lu Qingcang before he touches Yuenu, or he will kill him. All in all, this wedding night wasn't going to come to fruition.
"If you have time to worry about others, it's better to worry about yourself." A familiar voice came from behind, Xiahou raised his face and saw Qiuye slowly approaching.
He was like a worm in Xia Houlin's stomach, every time he could see what he was thinking just by looking at Xia Houlin's face.
"Master Qiu, why are you here?"
"I'm your 'sheath' this time. After you and your mother succeed, I'll ambush someone at the entrance of the alley to cut off the queen for you."
succeed? Xia Houlin was a little stunned. He was assassinated three times and failed three times. Will it really work this time? Rubbing the mud between the stones and bricks with his feet, Xia Houlin said: "Can you persuade my mother not to do this, I can do it alone. If it's a big deal, I'll die, can I force me like this? If I succeed, it's fine, then if I die inside, Lu Qingcang will also chop her off when she goes out, and the whole family will die in the Lu Mansion, what's the matter!"
"What your mother decided, ten horses can't pull it back, I can't do anything." Qiu Ye tapped the palm of his hand with the fan bone and shook his head.
"Alas." Xia Houlin sighed, the rain gradually subsided, and Huizhou City showed his face in the gradually dissipating fog, as if a thin veil had been lifted. When the weather is good, people should be happy, but Xia Houlin's heart seems to be pressed by something, and he can't relax.
"Master," he said, looking at the blue sky, "Why do we have to do this, is it interesting? Lu Qingcang is really old and serious, and he wants to marry a little girl and go home at an old age. For half his life, he retreated from Japanese pirates in the south, and refused to fight the wars in the north. Two sons, one big and one small, all died on the front line. Now I have finally returned to my hometown, thinking that I will be able to take care of the longevity, but we were disturbed by us before I slept for a few days. Now. If we kill Lu Qingcang, wouldn't we become Daqi's sinner?"
Qiuye sat down and said with a smile, "Our Xiaolin is a good person."
"Okay, I know, Galan's life must not be violated. I'll just complain."
"I shouldn't have told you this, but as long as you don't say it, it's fine." Qiuye said, "Little Lin, do you know who is going to kill Lu Qingcang?"
"His enemy. He has been fighting and killing all his life, and his enemies are definitely everywhere."
"It's Oara." Qiuye said, "There are twenty-eight tribes in Oara, each tribe has a hundred cattle and a hundred sheep, and only one head of Lu Qingcang is exchanged. The war is over, the court and Oara have long been Negotiating peace. Lu Qingcang is old and will never go to the battlefield again. It will not bring any benefit to Oara. But they did not forget the warriors who died on the battlefield and those who were buried by Lu Qingcang. Even if their monarch forgot, those warriors A woman who has lost her husband will not forget it, and a child who has lost her father will not forget it. Only Lu Qingcang's head can eliminate this hatred and hatred. Xiaolin, do you think Lu Qingcang should be killed?"
Xia Houlin was stunned for a long time before he said, "We can't raise so many cattle and sheep on the mountain."
"What's more, there is no conclusion about right and wrong? In a hundred generations of life, yesterday's right becomes today's wrong in a blink of an eye, and today's wrong becomes tomorrow's right. Let me give you another example. Emperor Taizu started in the fields and his parents were both Died of famine. But he became emperor, taxed, and did corvée, princes and nobles were high above him, and his fellow traders and pawns were still as cheap as dust. What he hated in the past became what he did and what he pityed. It became what he trampled on, what do you mean by right and wrong?"
Xia Houlin was so used to being inexperienced that he was dizzy when Qiuye went round his head like this, "This is nothing, isn't it because he has become bad himself."
"Because life should be like this." Xiahou Pei suddenly emerged from behind, straddled his long legs, and sat beside Xiahou Lin and took a bite of an apple, "For example, a house has earth and stone as its foundation, bricks and wood as its bones, and tiles as its roof. If there is a house, then there is earth and stone, and someone is destined to stay at the bottom. Similarly, if there is hatred, there is destined to have Galan, and there are destined people like us to pay for them."
Xiahou Pei continued: "You don't want to do this business of human life, of course you can. You see that Emperor Taizu didn't want to be a farmer, so he started an uprising and overthrew the previous dynasty. Of course you can..."
Akiba smiled slightly and replied, "Destroyed Garan."
"Just kidding. I'm going to destroy Jialan, and all of us will be tortured to death in July and a half." Xia Houlin said.
"Make a choice and bear the consequences. This is the price you have to pay for taking this path." Xiahou Pei shrugged, "Otherwise, just go to work obediently."
After working for a long time, there is still no way. Xiahou said angrily: "It's easy to say, why don't you two go by yourself?"
"Because we are not good people." Xiahou Pei laughed and laughed, "I never imagined that I could not help but die, and everyone in the world used the name of Garuda to stop children from crying at night, and actually raised a good son."
"Go away." Xia Houlin stood up and walked into the door, ignoring them.
Qiuye and Xiahou Pei were still sitting under the porch, and it seemed that they were still interested in chatting.
"How's the injury on your back?" Akiba asked.
The last time Xiahou Lin let Xie Jinglan go, he should have been whipped eighty-one, but he fainted after the thirtieth, and Xiahou Pei took the rest for him. But at that time, Xiahou Pei's old wounds under the hands of the Great Wheel King had not healed, and new wounds were added.
"It's the same, it's alright, don't worry about it." Xiahou Pei crossed Erlang's legs and watched the water droplets flowing in front of the steps.
Seeing her like this, Qiuye sighed deeply, and added: "Lu Qingcang killed a lot, and his karma is hard to eradicate. The person who climbed out of the sea of blood from the mountain of corpses became Xiaolin's first drop of blood. Will become the strongest assassin in the world."
"You still believe this?" Xiahou Pei said with a smile.
"If you want to temper a real sharp blade, you must use hatred and blood." Qiu Ye's eyes looked over, his eyes were deep, "Xiahou, you know this better than me."
Lu House.
Thousands of rain arrows fell into the river between the white walls of Uwa, splashing raindrops half a foot high, and the world was boiling like a tide.
The wind and rain outside the house are like crazy, and the spring night tent inside the house is warm. The low and suppressed cry of Yuenu gradually started, and it was indistinguishable from the rain.
Under the porch, Xia Houlin said, "Before I die, can I ask you a question?"
"Say."
"Does Master Qiu like men or women?" Xia Houlin asked with a smile.
"Fuck you, go in quickly." Xiahou Pei kicked Xiahou into the new house. A passing servant behind him exclaimed, "Who are you?" Xiahou Pei drew his knife and turned around, sealing the last word in the man's throat.
The red candle had a high fever, and the old but muscular man knelt on the head of the bed. Yuenu's face was full of weeping marks, and he pulled hard on the red quilt covering his jade-white body.
Xia Houlin was a little embarrassed and scratched his head.
Lu Qingcang got out of bed half naked. He was a burly man with scars all over his body, like a centipede across his chest. Compared with Xiahou Lin, he looked more dangerous, like a ghost crawling out of a yellow spring.
"As I said earlier, I don't want a girl with a lover in my heart. What I want is a clean girl who is willing to marry into the Lu residence. That old bustard is too greedy for money, I should have sent someone to inquire about it." Lu Qingcang squinted at him Xia Houlin, "You dare to come to my Lu Mansion to grab someone, but you are brave."
"The general misunderstood, I am not her lover."
"He's my little servant." Yue Nu whispered, whispering like a mosquito.
"Neither." Xia Houlin pressed his left hand on the handle of the knife, "I am from Qiye Jialan, and I have been ordered by the abbot to send the general to a blissful life."
"Hahaha, it turned out to be from Jialan." Lu Qingcang's voice was like a bell, "I saw Jialan Kinnara's methods eight years ago. He stabbed my general with a cicada-wing knife. It was a banquet, my Pi Jiang held the cup and lowered his head, everyone thought he was asleep. After the banquet was over, we found that the meridian on his neck had been punctured and blood flowed all over the place. Everyone was so happy that they didn't find it."
"Kinaro is my senior."
"I have a huge debt of blood, and it's not surprising that Garan killed me. I just didn't expect that they would send a baby like you here. Why, in your Garan's eyes, this old man is not as good as a small general!"
"The general's words are serious, and I will show you the sincerity of Jialan!" As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Houlin drew his sword and unsheathed it, and the light of the thousand-machine sword was as cold as frost.
Lu Qingcang kicked the knife holder, and the long knife flew into the air. He jumped up and took out the long knife. In the candlelight, the two blades were gridded together, and the light flowed on the tip of the knife, as cold as jade.
"Kill me, child, you are not qualified." Lu Qingcang glanced in the direction of the door and laughed loudly, "The one outside the door should come."
In an instant, the blades of the two collided dozens of times. Lu Qingcang's attack was very powerful, causing the Thousand Machine Sword to whine and scream every time, as if it was about to break in the next moment. The two collided in the snow-like knife light, separated, and collided again. The connection between the knife and the knife made a melodious and eloquent sound like the sound of a zither. After dozens of times, the two stepped back for a short pause, and Xia Houlin's mouth was already cracked.
"You don't look much older than Yuenu, a teenage child, has become my enemy?"
"Fourteen is enough." Xia Houlin gasped.
"What kind of world is this, a fourteen-year-old child is about to hold a knife. Is there no one in Qiye Garan!?"
"The surname is Lu, has no one taught you not to talk when killing people!?" Xia Houlin roared, fit in and pounced on Lu Qingcang.
Lu Qingcang was not in a hurry to use the knife, he squatted down slightly and hid the knife behind his elbow. When Xiahou Lin was three steps closer, he drew out his sword, and a cold arc flashed in front of his chest, like thunder and lightning across the sky in the dark night. At the moment when the two blades were about to collide, Lu Qingcang suddenly twisted an angle and turned his body sideways. When the blades rubbed together, they made a sour sound. The blade continued to move forward, cutting through Xia Houlin's left arm. The two separated with their backs facing away, and Lu Qingcang stood with his sword raised.
This subtle change in the stance of the blade between breaths can only be made by someone like Lu Qingcang who has been in the killing field for a long time, and Xia Houlin is unavoidable.
Blood flowed along the wrist to the handle of the knife, and the bone-piercing pain tortured Xia Houlin's nerves. He heard Lu Qingcang say, "Stop it, boy. In ten years, you might be able to kill me."
"Old General, you are too naive. When I stepped into this place, we would never die!" Xiahou Lian turned around, held the knife and moved forward, the black robe in the faint candlelight flew like wings, as if flying Moth to fire.
What does it mean to kill? Does Lu Qingcang deserve to die
He didn't know, and he didn't have the heart to think about it.
All he knew was that he didn't want the assassin outside the door to die here!
He wants to live!
Outside the door, the torrential rain was maddening, Xiahou Pei cut the throat of the 20th person, and the blood spurted like a tide, splashing on the blade together with the rain, and rustling down the blood trough. Xiahou Pei turned around, faced the frightened servants around him, and cut off a beautiful knife.
Inside the door, Xiahou Lin slashed with a knife, Lu Qingcang turned to avoid it, the table was torn apart in an instant, red dates, chestnuts and lilies splashed like rain. This time, instead of using the fierce attack of one-knife decisive victory, they used a continuous slash that was as fast as a ghost. The dense light of the knife enveloped the whole body, and the two of them were like fierce beasts in a gladiatorial fight, and they fit together again at the moment of collision and separation, without breathing at all, without stopping at all, grinding their teeth and sucking blood, and their fangs were fully revealed.
However, Xia Houlin was no longer confrontational. He learned from Lu Qingcang's change of blade stance, twisting the angle at the moment when the blades met, and the blades shifted to relieve the force. So Lu Qingcang failed every time he tried his best, and was cut by Xia Houlin before he could dodge. After dozens of tricks, Lu Qingcang had a lot of small holes on his body.
When death was so close, Xiahou Lin was surprisingly calm.
He clearly knew the gap between him and Lu Qingcang. But Lu Qingcang was old and his strength was limited. As long as Xia Houlin dragged on, when he was exhausted, it would be Xia Houlin's chance to win.
In the turbulent continuous slashing, Xia Houlin rushed towards the opponent again and again, and the blade was continuous, as if it would never stop. Suddenly, Lu Qingcang gave way to the side like a ghost, and Xia Houlin's knife actually failed!
As soon as the stance of the sword was cut off, it was unsustainable. When Xia Houlin had no time to turn around, Lu Qingcang pointed the tip of the knife upwards and then swung the knife downwards, falling down and slashing like a mountain. At that moment, it suddenly became extremely long. Seeing the mountain-like slash falling slowly, he was about to split his head.
He suddenly understood that Lu Qingcang was not unable to match his continuous slashes. Lu Qingcang just lured him into a "potential" that he could not extricate himself from. When the continuous slashes became a cycle, he was adapted to the extremely fast pace and could not change his moves. That's when Lu Qingcang fought back.
This is the real killer. He has extremely strong swordsmanship, as well as extremely strong strategy.
But who said he would stop here!
Xia Houlin let out a shrill roar, high-pitched and continuous tearing, as if an invisible blade pierced Lu Qingcang's nerves. At this moment, he was a lone wolf trapped in the quagmire, and his desperate roar was enough to shock the battle-hardened veteran. In just a split second, Lu Qingcang's blade became astringent. But this moment was enough for Xia Houlin. He slashed forward, and the bleak arc of light crossed his chest, resisting the overwhelming blow.
blocked!
However, a harsh click sounded. The arc suddenly broke, and Xia Houlin hummed in his head, subconsciously retreated and fell to the ground. There was a severe pain in his chest, and Lu Qingcang's knife tore a tear in his chest, and blood gurgled out.
Qianji, it's broken!
His grandma's!
Lu Qingcang seized the opportunity to fit in and rushed forward, and Xiahou Rin picked up a tumbler and placed it in front of him. Lu Qingcang rode on Xia Houlin's body, holding the knife in both hands, the tip of the knife pointing downwards, pointing directly at Xia Houlin's face. Xia Houlin clenched his teeth and used the tug to hold against Lu Qingcang, the tip of the knife was only an inch away from him.
The tip of the knife trembled, gradually approaching Xia Houlin's forehead, a wound was drawn on his brow, and blood flowed along the eye socket. The tip of the knife continued downward, three inches, two inches, and it was about to reach Xia Houlin's right eye. Xia Houlin saw that Lu Qing's pale eyebrows and dragon whiskers were flamboyant, and his eyes were red, like an angry ghost.
The blood on his chest continued to flow out, taking away his power. Xia Houlin gritted his teeth, and the veins on his forehead were hideous.
Suddenly, Lu Qingcang's whole body was shaken, Xia Houlin's strength suddenly loosened, he stood up in a daze, Lu Qingcang fell from him, revealing Yuenu behind him.
Yuenu released the broken knife in his hand, fell to the ground and stepped back, shaking his lips and said, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me... I didn't kill it... I didn't want to, but... But, I don't want to marry him... "
Like a string that had been tense for too long suddenly loosened, Xia Houlin lost all strength and could not stand up.
Lu Qingcang was lying on the ground with his eyes open, staring straight at Yue Nu. He didn't expect that he did not die on the battlefield or in the hands of assassins, but in the hands of a weak woman. Xia Houlin watched as the strength in his hands slowly loosened, and his angry eyes turned into empty wells, an unconscious dead body.
Xia Houlin took a deep breath, picked up Lu Qingcang's knife and pushed out the door.
It was raining heavily, the corpses in the yard piled up into mountains, and blood was flowing on the ground, as if the entire mansion was here. At this moment, the Lu Mansion had nothing but the sound of rain and wind. The ghostly assassin turned his back to him and looked up at the rainy sky, his thin back like a solitary ancient bamboo.
Xia Houlin wiped the blood from his face and called out, "Mother, I won."
It was obviously over, but he didn't feel happy at all. He involuntarily took another deep breath, inhaling the bloody smell in his nose.
"Xiao Lan, you are a real assassin." The assassin's voice was hoarse, "A man should be self-improvement, a mother can't cover you for a lifetime, you have to learn to protect yourself, and then protect the people you want to protect."
"Mother..."
A long flash of lightning flashed across the sky, tearing a hideous crack in the sky. The world turned white for a moment, and at that moment, Xia Houlin saw a deep area on her back, like a dark ink.
She was wearing black, and he couldn't tell. Is it rain, sweat... or blood
The answer is quickly answered. Xia Houlin saw that on the ground, at the foot of Xiahou Pei, there was a dark red blood trail, crawling like an icy snake, meeting with raindrops, and scattered into red ink.
Xiahou Pei trembled, like a dead leaf in the desolate wind, his back slowly lowered.
"mother!"